Why the IRS might owe you a refund even if you forgot

Why the IRS might owe you a refund even if you forgot

If during a given tax year more money was withheld from your paycheck (or paid in estimated tax) than you owed in actual taxes or if you qualified for refundable credits — the IRS owes you a refund.

• Sometimes people don’t realize they are owed a refund because they never filed a return (especially if their income was low, or they believed filing wasn’t required). According to the IRS, many Americans each year have “unclaimed tax refunds” because they didn’t file.

  As of March 2025, the IRS publicly warned that over 1.1 million taxpayers still had unclaimed refunds for the 2021 tax year meaning money owed to the government that legally belongs to taxpayers.

So yes it’s quite possible the IRS does “owe you money,” especially if you forgot to file or overlooked refundable credits.

But there’s a clock: The “claim window”

The law gives you three years from the original filing deadline (or extension date) to file a return and claim a refund.

• If you miss that three-year window, the refund is forfeited — the money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury.

  The IRS reminds taxpayers each year to check old returns or file late if eligible — because billions in refunds remain unclaimed nationwide.

In short: the “money owed to you” doesn’t last forever procrastinate too long, and that refund disappears.

What you can — and should — do now

If you never filed for a year when you should have (or could have gotten a refund), check if you still qualify — and consider filing that return as soon as possible (within the 3-year window).

• If you did file but never saw a refund (or lost a refund check), use the IRS’s official tools — like “Where’s My Refund?” — to track your payment status.

  If a refund check was lost, stolen, or undelivered (say, because you moved), you can request a “refund trace” (e.g. using Form 3911) to recover the funds.

Why many people don’t realize they’re owed

Some folks mistakenly believe they’re not required to file if they made very little money — but that “low income” doesn’t automatically disqualify them from credits or refunds.

• Others may not file a return because they owe zero taxes, not realizing they might still get withholding back or refundable credits.

  The IRS sends fewer refund-related notices for older years, so unclaimed refunds accumulate quietly until someone checks.

What this means in 2026 and why it matters

In 2026, there’s a real opportunity for Americans to recover thousands of dollars or more that the IRS is holding. Many of those funds stem from years in which people didn’t file returns or forgot about refundable tax credits. But that opportunity won’t last forever: the three-year statute of limitations for claiming refunds means every year matters.