Hey, Patrick Shehan, Nikolas Quigley and Lolita Patterson: The IRS wants to hear from you and 33 other Douglas County residents.

The government still has your money, and wants to give it back.

“It’s the taxpayers’ refunds,” said Michael Devine, an Internal Revenue Service spokesman in St. Louis. “They just didn’t get their checks, for whatever reason. We just want to help them get their money back.

“The IRS is trying to give back money.”

The 36 folks with Douglas County addresses – 34 in Lawrence and two in Eudora – are among 764 Kansas taxpayers whose tax refunds came back to the IRS as “undeliverable” after this past tax season.

The total value of the Douglas County refunds is $18,521, for average of $514.

In Kansas, the total waiting to be returned is $549,296, for an average refund of $719.

Nationwide, the IRS is waiting to send out $110 million to 115,478 taxpayers, for an average refund of $953.

In all cases, all anyone needs to do is go online – at www.irs.gov – and click on the “Where’s My Refund” link, or call (800) 829-1954 for an automated call-in system.

From there, Devine said, just be sure you have three vital pieces of information from the return you filed earlier this year:

¢ Your Social Security number.

¢ The total amount owed on your refund.

¢ Your filing status.

Once in the system, you can provide the IRS with all the information the agency will need – most notably, your correct mailing address – so that you can get your check.

Or, better yet, you can sign up for direct deposit so that there’s not an issue of actually sending a printed check, Devine said.

“That’s the best way,” he said, noting that electronic deposits to a specific account also can eliminate future problems.

“Not only do you get your refund faster, but it won’t get returned by the Postal Service,” he said. “You tell us what account you want it in, and, if you file electronically, and do direct deposit, you can have your money back in as little as two weeks,” compared with six to eight weeks for traditional mailed-in forms and mailed-back checks.

“And,” as 36 county residents now know, “if it gets returned by the Postal Service, it could be a lot longer,” Devine said.