Greensboro, NC -- The Internal Revenue Service is looking for taxpayers in the Carolinas who are due to receive more than $4.5 million in the form of nearly 4,500 refund checks that were returned to the IRS by the U.S. Postal Service due to mailing address errors.

Esther Osman and her husband Robert didn't know what happened to their check. They'd never missed a tax refund check before.

"I just thought it'll come later," said Osman. But somehow, the check didn't get delivered by mail. Now she must request an address change to get what belongs to her.

The Osmans' share is just $15, but the average North Carolina taxpayer owed a refund is due more than $1100 dollars.

All a taxpayer has to do is update his or her address once. The IRS will then send out all checks due.

If a refund check is returned to the IRS as undeliverable, taxpayers can generally update their addresses with the " Where's My Refund?" tool on IRS.gov. The tool enables taxpayers to check the status of their refunds. A taxpayer must submit his or her social security number, filing status and amount of refund shown on their 2008 return. The tool will provide the status of their refund and in some cases provide instructions on how to resolve delivery problems.

Taxpayers checking on a refund over the phone will be given instructions on how to update their addresses. Taxpayers can access a telephone version of "Where's My Refund?" by calling 1-800-829-1954.

Average refunds for each Triad county:

County	Count	Average Refund	Sum of Refunds
GUILFORD	164	$1,056	$173,127
FORSYTH	99	$969	$94,991
DAVIDSON	18	$720	$12,953
ALAMANCE	37	$692	$25,619
RANDOLPH	29	$1,183	$34,310
ROCKINGHAM	23	$384	$8,438
STOKES	6
SURRY	12	$815	$9,780
WILKES	15	$854	$12,806
YADKIN	6
DAVIE	10
MONTGOMERY	3
CASWELL	4
ALLEGHANY	2