Thousands of dollars in stimulus checks still missing

Sixty-nine Monroe County residents have not received their stimulus checks, totaling up to $35,497, because of wrong mailing addresses.

The 69 residents are a few of 3,896 Hoosiers whose stimulus payments were sent back to the IRS office because the post office deemed them “undeliverable.” The total amount of checks in Indiana adds up to about $2.2 million.

IRS spokesperson Jodie Reynolds said the stimulus checks were sent out to the taxpayers during the summer but were sent back by the post office because most were undeliverable due to invalid and outdated mailing addresses.

The list of people who haven’t received their stimulus or rebate checks was made earlier in October, Reynolds said.

Residents who have not received their checks have until Nov. 28 to change their mailing address, Reynolds said. People can do this by going online to the IRS Web site, going into their local IRS office or by calling the IRS.

“People across the country are missing tax refunds and stimulus checks,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman in a press release. “We are committed to making the process as easy as possible for taxpayers to update their addresses with the IRS and get their checks.”

Bloomington resident Barbara Starnes, 27, expects to receive her stimulus check within a couple days or weeks.

Starnes said the IRS sent her a letter on Oct. 16 saying her stimulus check was sent back to the IRS office because she had listed on her taxes the address of someone who handles her finances. The letter said the stimulus check would arrive in 30 days.
“If I get it now it will help me better than it would have then,” Starnes said. “I’ll probably get Christmas stuff for the kids.”

Starnes said she also plans to use her delayed stimulus payment to pay off bills and to buy her two children warmer clothing.

By law, the IRS has to send all of the stimulus checks by Dec. 31, Reynolds said.
Besides wrong addresses, residents might have missed out on their entire stimulus check because of small errors such as an invalid Social Security number, Reynolds said.

The IRS is working with the Social Security offices to correct the problem, Reynolds said. People facing this problem will receive a second stimulus check with the rest of their payment.

In addition to stimulus checks, 41 Monroe County residents have yet to receive their annual rebate checks from the IRS.

Invalid mailing addresses among other things are why these rebate checks haven’t gotten to the wallets of Hoosiers.

The sum of undelivered refund checks is $31,531, Reynolds said in an e-mail.
Hoosiers who do not get their refund or stimulus payment by the end of the year will be able to get the payment next year if they fill out the “recovering rebate credit” in next year’s tax form, Reynolds said.

Reynolds recommends filing taxes online and having refund checks directly deposited into checking accounts to avoid the confusion involved with “undelivered checks.”