IRS owes more than 1,000 Long Islanders money

More than 1,000 Long Islanders have money waiting for them from the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS said it has $23.9 million in undelivered refund checks for 9,662 New York State residents. The checks were sent to bad mailing addresses and bounced back to the government.

Of those, 634 are in Suffolk, where the average return was $3,204. In Nassau, there were 443 undelivered returns, with an average amount of $2,052.

Taxpayers can update addresses with the "Where's My Refund?" tool on IRS.gov or by calling 800-829-1954.

"We want New Yorkers to get this money as soon as possible. If you think you are missing a tax refund, take a few minutes to go on IRS.gov or call the toll free IRS refund hotline," said Dianne Besunder, an IRS spokeswoman.

The average amount of undeliverable refund checks in New York was $2,471 this year, up from $1,581 last year. Some are due more than one check.The IRS said that only a small percentage of checks are returned as undelivered and that taxpayers can avoid the problem by choosing direct deposit when they file either paper or electronic returns.