Friday is the deadline to file for 2020 tax refund: Here's who qualifies
Officials say that around 940,000 people in the U.S. have until May 17 to file tax returns for unclaimed refunds for tax year 2020
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The deadline to file for a tax refund from 2020 is this Friday, and the IRS is advising people to file for a return if they haven't yet.
They say there is more than $1 billion available for refunds, but the deadline to get a portion of that money is approaching.
"If you're looking for a little extra cash," said Raphael Tulino, with the IRS. "You have until the end of this week to get that original return in."
Anyone who wasn't required to file for 2020 may want to consider filing.
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According to Tulino, most of the people eligible are workers who were in part-time jobs and didn't earn enough to be eligible for a mandatory filing, but they still had money taxed away from paychecks.
"You had a part time job, you had some withholding, you should file a return to get that withholding back, and that is what is in the pot of money," he said.
In California, Tulino says there is $94 million available.
However, if the money is not claimed by this Friday, it goes over to the Department of Treasury.
The reason for the unique deadline is because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Normally, people have three years from the usual tax day in April to file for a refund.
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However, the tax day deadline got pushed back in 2021 to May, so the three year window to get a refund is now approaching.
Plus, it doesn't stop at tax returns.
Tulino says anyone who is eligible for special tax credits should try and claim those before the deadline, or else they too will be gone.
This is money people can get," he said. "They should look at filing if they haven't already done and they should look to do that as soon as possible."
