The Internal Revenue Service wants to find 41 Virgin Islands taxpayers and give them what they deserve - a check.

More than $45,000 in tax refund payments mailed to Virgin Islands residents were returned to the IRS by the U.S. Postal Service because of address errors. The average amount of the undeliverable refunds is $1,141, according to Mike Dobzinski, IRS spokesman for Florida and the Virgin Islands.

Dobzinski urged taxpayers to have their 2009 returns directly deposited into their bank accounts to avoid delayed payment. Direct deposit can be chosen whether taxes are filed by paper or electronically.

"A lot of people still file the old-fashioned way, by paper, and still want to get check in mail," he said. "If you do that, you run the risk of not having the check catch up with you."

Those checks have yet to find 22 St. Croix taxpayers, 17 St. Thomas taxpayers and two taxpayers on St. John.

Individuals who suspect their refund check may have been returned to the IRS can go to www.irs.gov and click on "Where's My Refund" to review their refund status, or they can call call 800-829-1954.

Taxpayers can update their address by filing IRS Form 8822, available at www.irs.gov or by calling 800-829-3676. Once an address is updated with the IRS, the refund will be mailed again.

According to Dobzinski, checks "don't have an expiration date," and if no updated address is received, the refunds will be sent when an updated address is given with 2009 filings.

"We publish this list every fall because we want to get people their money," Dobzinski said. "We don't want them to have to wait until they file next year.

Nationwide, 107,831 IRS refunds totaling $123.5 million were returned this year, and some taxpayers are due refund checks for multiple years. The national average for an undeliverable refund check was up 16 percent over 2007, from $990 to $1,148. IRS officials say that changes in tax law, such as the First-Time Homebuyer's Credit and the Recovery Rebate Credit, are likely the cause of increased refunds.

According to the IRS, most refund checks reach their rightful owner with only a small percentage returned each year.

- Contact Constance Cooper at 774-8772 ext. 364 or e-mail ccooper@dailynews.vi.