The $18 billion State Employees' Credit Union is trying to find a soft spot with the IRS as the cooperative continues to make the case that it can help the agency find recipients of unclaimed tax refunds.
The IRS recently said 107,831 refund checks totaling $123.5 million were returned to the agency because of mailing address errors. SECU President/CEO Jim Blaine offered to check IRS records against the CU's database to see if any members were due checks. The IRS said it could not share Social Security numbers with anyone except the taxpayer.
In another appeal, Blaine said North Carolina is the country's tenth most populous state making up 4% of the population. He figured if 4% of the 107,831 unclaimed checks belong to North Carolinians that would amount to 4,300 people.
“Tell Scrooge [or] whoever that might be at the IRS, to quit with the 'bah-humbugs,'” Blaine said in a Nov. 12 e-mail he shared with Credit Union Times. “What a gift this might be at this time of year! A special gift from the IRS!”
The IRS said it is eager to get the checks out to the rightful owners. Blaine said he can get SECU's data tape to the agency “right away” and even asked about a possible pilot between the two.
“C'mon, the IRS needs to practice its 'Ho-Ho-Ho's,'” Blaine urged.
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