Undeliverable Tax Checks Total $266 Million

The Internal Revenue Service said that more than 279,000 economic stimulus checks, totaling about $163 million, and over 104,000 regular refund checks, totaling about $103 million, have been returned by the U.S. Postal Service due to mailing address errors.

The IRS is looking for the whereabouts of the taxpayers so it can provide them with their money. "People across the country are missing tax refunds and stimulus checks," said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman in a statement. "We want to get this money into the hands of taxpayers where it belongs."

The IRS is advising taxpayers who have not yet received their checks to update their addresses through the "Where's My Refund?" tool on IRS.gov, where they can also look up the status of their refunds and rebates. The IRS will then send out all checks due. Taxpayers who may be due a stimulus check can update their addresses with the IRS by Nov. 28, 2008. By law, economic stimulus checks must be sent out by Dec. 31 of this year. The undeliverable economic stimulus checks average $583.

Taxpayers must submit their Social Security number, filing status and the amount of the refund shown on their 2007 return. The tool will provide the status of their refund and in some cases provide instructions on how to resolve delivery problems.

Taxpayers checking on a refund over the phone will be given instructions on how to update their addresses. Taxpayers can access a telephone version of "Where's My Refund?" by calling (800) 829-1954.