Laura Sanders, The Clock Is Ticking on Your Chance to Cash In on a Covid-Era Tax Loophole (Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2026)

Strange but true: Tens of millions of Americans could be owed billions of dollars in tax refunds of Covid-era interest and penalties due to a recent federal court decision. 

But getting these refunds won’t be easy. Most eligible filers will need to send paperwork to the Internal Revenue Service by July 10. This will preserve their right to refunds and other favorable treatment due to the decision. 

Large companies and wealthy individuals are already scrambling to file claims with the IRS. Now, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins, who heads an independent unit within the IRS, is pushing to get the word out to everyone else.

“This is a sleeper issue that’s easy to overlook, but it has opened the door to the possibility of refunds for millions of taxpayers,” Collins said. 

Here’s an overview of what to know. For more details, see Collins’s NTA blog posts, which are linked in this column.