Tax deadline looms

April 15 is both the deadline for filing a 2008 federal income tax return and the drop-dead deadline for claiming any refund owed you from 2005. After that, the money belongs to Uncle Sam.

The Internal Revenue Service estimates that about 8,300 Utahns who have not filed a 2005 tax return are due about $8.3 million collectively in unclaimed 2005 refunds, says Bill Brunson, an IRS spokesman. Nationally, the IRS is sitting on $1.3 billion owed to 1 million taxpayers from that year. But to get it, you have to file the return — and every return since. The median amount of the Utah refunds is just shy of $500.

Brunson was in Salt Lake City recently to talk about changes that may benefit taxpayers, most included on the tax forms you'll file for '09 next April.

From the date the return was first due, taxpayers who are owed a refund have three years to file, so April 15 is the last chance for 2005. Unclaimed refunds go into the U.S. Treasury. There's no late penalty when you're owed a refund.

It's possible that 2005's non-filers will not only miss out on excess money they paid into the tax system but also money from the Earned Income Tax Credit that year.

"The IRS can help with documentation that was reported to us," says Brunson, so if you can't find your old W-2, the IRS probably can. You can get copies of the forms to file online at www.irs.gov or by calling 800-829-3676. You can get toll-free IRS Helpline assistance for this and other tax issues at 800-829-1040.

Brunson also says the future holds a few perks for some taxpayers, starting with a small tax cut that will be distributed as a slight bump in the paycheck, rather than through stimulus checks. The 2009 and 2010 credit is 6.2 percent of a taxpayer's earned income (up to $400 a person or $800 a couple) and is phased out for higher-income wage earners. Although it will be spread out in paychecks from spring through year's end, eligible taxpayers need to claim the credit when they file a return next year.

Also new, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides incentive to buy new cars, light trucks, motor homes and motorcycles in the form of a deduction for state and local sales and excise taxes up to $49,500. Purchases made before Feb. 17, 2009, aren't eligible. And the deduction phases out for joint filers with adjusted gross incomes between $250,000 and $260,000 and individuals between $125,000 and $135,000.