Unclaimed Stimulus Checks Put To Reality Check

By Dan Bewley and Terry Hood, The News On 6

UNDATED -- Millions of dollars in unclaimed checks from the IRS remain on hold.  The money is part of President Bush's economic stimulus package and the IRS is still looking for thousands of Oklahomans who never received their money.

More than 3,000 Oklahomans have not received their checks and the deadline to contact the IRS is only nine days away or the money is gone for good.

The $168 billion in federal money was part of President Bush's economic stimulus package.  The first checks started arriving in May, but six months later and thousands have gone uncashed, all returned to the IRS.

"In most cases the reason the check is returned undeliverable is because the person moved and did not notify either the IRS or the postal service of a forwarding address," said David Stell with the IRS.

Across Oklahoma, the total reaches more than $2 million uncashed checks.  In Tulsa County alone, more than $429,000 in stimulus checks were returned.  In Muskogee County the number is $32,000 and another $30,000 from Rogers County.      

In Green Country, the IRS says close to $300,000 may be left on the table.

The IRS will not mail out any checks after December 31st and they need time to process the claims which means if you didn't get your check, your deadline is fast approaching.

"The bottom line is if people don't notify us of a new address by November 28th for their economic stimulus payment, in time for us to mail it out, the check is lost," said David Stell with the IRS.

Again, the deadline to contact the IRS is the 28th, that's next Friday.

IRS list of by county of undelivered Economic Stimulus Payment checks and undelivered regular refund checks

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