Woman's quarter million sits unclaimed with New Zealand IRD for more than 8 years

Thousands of people, estates and organisations have unclaimed money sitting with IRD. Photo / Herald file

Mrs S. Konami, your treasure is calling to you.

In fact her pile of $252,135.88 has been calling to her from New Zealand's tax department without an answer for at least eight years.

Konami's pile is the largest amount of unclaimed money currently held by the Inland Revenue Department.

Under the Unclaimed Money Act, organisations such as banks and insurers send unclaimed money to the IRD.

"It is money which has been left untouched by their customers for six or more years," the IRD said, adding that it was not tax refunds.

"We then provide a service to return the money to its true owners."

But that isn't brisk business when compared to the total sum held.

A year ago - the latest tally published by IRD - it was holding $181.337 million in unclaimed money. In the 12 months to last Sunday it returned $2.2 million to the owners. In total around $24 million has been returned. The service began in 1974.

Thousands of individuals, organisations and estates are listed on the IRD website as the owners of sums ranging from the low hundreds to Konami's more than $250,000.

Sixty were each more than $15,000 when the Weekend Herald counted this week.

When asked what happens to the money if it's not claimed, IRD said: "The monies remain in the public fund until proof of ownership is verified."

IRD asks people who believe they are entitled to unclaimed money to write or email it with their full name, address, tax number and a copy of their birth certificate or other proof of identity, and proof that they own the money.

"Every claim is different, but as a rule, a proof of ownership includes but is not limited to, details such as a bank account number, insurance policy number, utility provider customer number matching what we have on record."

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The department's unclaimed monies team writes to possible owners, but will not make a first approach by email or telephone.

To check if you have unclaimed money, check here.

The 10 largest unclaimed sums held by IRD
• $252,135.88 - Mrs S. Konami
• $230,383.37 - Mr Z. W. Zhou
• $40,860.70 - S. S. Hussain
• $38,356.98 - John Bryan Clark
• $38,043.84 - David Edwin Rewita estate
• $35,034.60 - Beverley Ann Archer
• $34,641.45 - A. F. Ross
• $34,460.56 - Graeme Hamilton
• $33,373.54 - Gordon George Kennedy
• $32,151.69 - S. H. Love