12,000 South Carolinians are entitled to a 2020 IRS tax refund… but time is limited

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The IRS owes nearly 12,000 South Carolinians a tax refund from the 2020 tax year, but the deadline to claim this refund is quickly approaching.

May 17th is the last day to claim money the IRS owes you. Between the 12,000 eligible for refund, there is more than $12 million that has gone unclaimed just in the state of South Carolina.

The IRS reports the average refund across the Palmetto State is roughly $840. Across the entire nation, the IRS estimates roughly $1 billion in unclaimed refunds and close to 940,000 people who haven’t claimed them.

This May deadline is also an unusual one, as normally the filing deadline to claim old refunds falls around April. According to the IRS, the three-year window for 2020 returns was postponed to this May deadline because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ahead of this upcoming deadline, News 2 talked with an IRS spokesperson, Rodney Foushee, who says some folks may have forgotten to file their refund, as 2020 was a much different year than normal.

“We had an extraordinary event COVID happened in 2020, so a lot of people were busy with other things, and some of these folks were people that maybe have been retired and just work a part-time job, a college student that didn’t have to file a return,” he said. “So one thing you can do, just easily go to IRS.gov it has a lot of information, and we have an interactive tax tool that you can use, you can also check where’s my refund to just see if you got a refund in 2020,” said Foushee.

The deadline is Friday, May 17th to file your 2020 tax refund.