According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), you have a lot of time to ensure your tax return's accuracy. According to the tax code, the IRS has three years to review your return and ten years to pursue any unpaid taxes.

When is the earliest date I can request a refund?

To claim any refund, you are due, and you have three years from the first filing deadline for your tax return.

1 Normally, tax returns must be filed by April 15th. You would have three years to file a return and get a refund by the April 15 deadline.

The IRS occasionally modifies the deadline for filing taxes. For example, the coronavirus outbreak in 2021 caused the due date for the 2020 tax return to be moved to May 17, 2021. You have until May 17, 2024, to get any tax refund owed you from the 2020 tax year.

If you wait until the due date to request a refund, the statute of limitations will have passed, and your refund will be permanently lost.

The Three-Year Refund Rule Exemptions

The three-year statute of limitations for refunds has two significant exceptions.

You have seven years to file a claim for a refund that was lessened by deductions for bad debt or worthless securities.

If you are physically or mentally incapable of managing your financial affairs, the three-year statute of limitations does not apply to you.

The Impact of Your Refund on Your Failure to Collect

The federal government will hold your money if you are entitled to a refund but fail to request one by the deadline. The IRS refers to this as an "extra collection." You will not be receiving the refund money. Additionally, you cannot use it as a payment offset for a later tax year.

How much time is allowed for the IRS to review reimbursement of taxation?

The day taxes are payable begins audit statute of limitations. Most situations fall under the umbrella of this deadline. 6 The filing of tax returns for 2021 is on April 15, 2022. Therefore, on April 15, 2025, time limit of three years under the law will expire.

The IRS would have three years to collect taxes if you requested an extension; this period would begin on the day you filed. If you filed in August, the three-year window would open.

Even though some regions have extended statute limitations, most state taxing authorities review tax returns within the federal three-year window.

A three-year audit rule exemptions

The three-year government audit and evaluation norms are not always followed.

If you fail to record income worth more than 25% of the income you report on the return, the IRS has six years from the return's filing date to audit it and impose the additional tax.

Additionally, if the lost money exceeds $5,000, the IRS has six years to review your tax return and add the tax to income from unreported overseas financial interests.

If you file a fake or fraudulent tax return, the imposition of additional taxes may never run out.

When must the IRS start pursuing tax collections?

The IRS has a 10-year time limit for money collection. The time frame must pass before pursuing any unpaid taxes falls within this range. The 10-year window for recovering past-due debt begins on the day a tax liability is finally determined. There are many other possible reasons for this. Your obligation may be deemed complete if:

If the IRS does not recover the entire sum within ten years, the balance is forever lost since the statute of limitations has run. However, the 10-year statute of limitations on collecting may be suspended in several circumstances.

The IRS is permitted to take as long as it wants to evaluate your taxes and determine your liabilities if you don't file tax returns. The statute of limitations begins to run whenever the IRS finds that you owe taxes. It's been three years, so the statute of limitations has expired, you forfeit the refund to the extent that it conducts a tax audit and finds that you were genuinely eligible for it.

What occurs if I don't apply for a tax refund?

Each tax return has a deadline, but you have ten years beyond that date to file your return and get a refund. If you don't do it, you'll have to forego that cash.