If you can afford to wait for your refund money or are just too busy right now to be bothered with tracking down missing tax money, you can wait. Your unclaimed tax refund check will find you when you send in your 2007 return that lists your current, correct address.

The IRS keeps the returned check information on file and will forward the money as soon as it gets valid delivery data. However, if you file Form 8822 now, you won't have to wait until you get around to filling all those tax forms to collect your cash.

Let the IRS know ASAP
Rather than trying to track down your check or waiting until you file your next return to get your money, don't become an owed taxpayer in the first place. Make sure your return's address is correct -- whether you handwrite it on the form, type it on your computer or use a preprinted label.

When you do move, let the agency know your new address by filing Form 8822. Although the IRS is working more closely with the U.S. Postal Service to utilize the mailman's new-address data, using the IRS form to directly inform the agency of your address change is always a good move.

Other checks routinely come back because the recipient changes a last name, usually because of a marriage or divorce. Again, let the tax collector (via Form 8822), as well as the Social Security Administration, know this. Not only does such notification head off delays in processing tax returns and issuing refunds, it safeguards future Social Security benefits.

And executors should explore whether a refund check might be involved in an estate's settlement.

Collect directly
The IRS also suggests that instead of waiting for your refund via the mail, have it directly deposited into an account.

More than 61 million filers used direct deposit in 2007. Their refunds (totaling nearly $165 billion) got to them faster, according to the IRS, and the method is more secure and convenient. There is no check to get lost -- or returned as undeliverable -- and no special trip to the bank to deposit a check.

To request direct deposit, simply follow the instructions on the "refund" line of your tax return. You can have a refund directly deposited regardless of which return (1040EZ, 1040A or 1040) you file.

You'll need to tell the IRS which type of account you have, the account number and the nine-digit routing number. Check with your account holder if you're unsure of the correct numbers to put here.

For 2007 returns and refunds, you'll still be able to divide and directly deposit your return into up to three accounts, although that will require filing additional paperwork, Form 8888.

One other thing to keep in mind: Some financial institutions do not allow a joint refund to be deposited into an individually owned account. So make sure whether the check is going into one or three accounts, your bank will accept it.

Freelance writer Kay Bell writes Bankrate's tax stories from her Austin, Texas, home. She also writes two tax blogs, Bankrate's Eye on the IRS, and Don't Mess With Taxes.