You wouldn't think there would be unclaimed tax refunds kicking around. After all, the cheques go out just a few weeks after people file their taxes. But there are. As of the end of 2007, there were 38,551 undeliverable and unclaimed refund cheques worth $25,372,066 just waiting to be cashed by taxpayers who paid too much tax.

The Canada Revenue Agency says it goes to great lengths to try to track down these people. They scour phone books, surf the web, and even check with neighbours. But often, people move and forget to notify anyone, including the tax department. Sometimes they leave Canada to return to the "old country" and forget to notify the tax department. And sometimes, they just die (and so can be forgiven for forgetting to notify the tax department).

There's no web-based search engine here, though. Privacy laws forbid that. So if you think you've got a refund coming but never got it, contact your local office of the Canada Revenue Agency for details on how to make a claim.

No interest is paid on unclaimed refunds. But there's no charge for the service and there's no time limit on making a claim.

And it's not just income tax refund cheques that we're talking about here. The tax department also has unclaimed GST Credit cheques and Canada Child Tax Benefit cheques.

To Part 5: Unclaimed Canada Savings Bonds