Oregon Says 5,000 Taxpayers Are Owed $1 Million

Earlier this summer, the state of Oregon notified more than 7,000 taxpayers that they had a combined $1.5 million to claim.

A couple of thousand people did claim about $500,000. But Bob Estabrook with the Oregon Department of Revenue says there’s still plenty of unclaimed money.

“We don’t have a system set up for folks to just go and check online, because unfortunately, we’re concerned about potential fraud associated with doing that," he said.

"But the thing to do if folks believe that they may have an expired check, if they’re not sure, [is] contacting our tax services unit — that would be a way to proceed.”

Estabrook says after two years, the money is sent to the Unclaimed Property Program at the Department of State Lands. And to get it from there, taxpayers need a notary and identifying documents.