$1 billion in tax refunds are about to become Uncle Sam’s

Uncle Sam is set to keep more than $1 billion in unclaimed 2013 tax refunds at this year’s filing deadline, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

These are refunds the IRS estimated are due roughly 1 million taxpayers who did not file a return for that year. Those taxpayers have three years to file or miss out and that happens at this year’s tax filing deadline, which is April 18.

The filing deadline is later than normal this year because of the weekend and a holiday that marks one of President Abraham Lincoln’s acts during the Civil War.

The IRS said taxpayers due these refunds might be students or part-time workers who didn’t file because they earned too little to have to file. Still, they may be due a refund if taxes had been withheld from their paychecks. Others who did not file may have qualified for refundable tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, that can be collected even if the filer owed no taxes.

In any case, the deadline looms.

“If they do not file a return within three years, the money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury,” a notice from the IRS said.

The IRS estimated that Kansans likely are about to miss out on $10.7 million of 2013 refunds, and Missourians could see nearly $20.8 million land in the U.S. Treasury instead of their accounts.

Claiming the money requires filing a 2013 return. And that means finding those old tax forms, such as a W-2, or getting new copies from employers.

The IRS said such documents also would be available on the agency’s online transcript service, where a taxpayer should request a “wage and income transcript.”

Free help filing taxes is available online and in many locations in the Kansas City area for those who qualify.

This story was originally published April 3, 2017 at 1:03 PM with the headline "$1 billion in tax refunds are about to become Uncle Sam’s."