Check Out Where the IRS is Sending Your Tax Dollars NOW!

IRS Stimulus Check

The IRS is one of the least-popular governmental agencies in existence. During the best of times, it has its hands in the pockets of hard-working Americans everywhere. At its worst, the “Infernal Revenue Service” makes such boneheaded mistakes, it’s a wonder they stay open.

Now, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS is mishandling the $1200 coronavirus stimulus checks that so many out-of-work Americans need. 

They Pay Dead People

There are multiple news reports and social media posts of stimulus money being sent to recipients who are deceased. For example:

“IRS/Treasury geeks: My grandma just got a $2,400 stimulus check. Her husband died in 2018, but they evidently used her 2018 tax return (which included him) to calculate how much she was owed. Does she have to pay $1,200 of that money back? What does she do?”

  • Another Twitter user, MsPrincessShann, who was widowed in March 2019, wrote:

I filed my 2019 as married filing jointly and that my husband was deceased.  I just received $2400 from the stimulus package… what happens to widows like me who are getting the $2400?  Will they want the $1200 back?”

  • Even Congressmen are reporting IRS errors. Kentucky State Representative Thomas Massie wrote, “Ok this is insane, but just the tip of the iceberg. This is a direct text to me from a friend. I called to confirm this actually just happened.” He then shared a screenshot that read:

Dad got his stimulus check of $1200. He died in 2018. Does he have to spend it online?”

To clarify, it is illegal to spend Social Security benefits issued to another person. However, they are “rarely prosecuted for small amounts”, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

IRS Mistakes are All-Too-Common

Errors like this happen all…the…time.

In 2009, the federal government sent stimulus checks to 89,000 dead or incarcerated people. Because they are technically wards of the state, prisoners are not eligible for federal benefits.

And in 2011, the IRS sent thousands of tax refunds worth over $85 million to unauthorized alien workers. These errors seem incomprehensible, because the fraud was blatantly obvious. For example, 24,000 of those refunds went to the same address in Atlanta.

Why Does This Happen?

Tom Schatz, President of Citizens Against Government Waste, explains it best:

“The death file, as it’s called, is always out of date and that’s always a problem either for normal Social Security payments and certainly in this case for the stimulus checks as well coming to dead people.”

“It’s going to happen. There’s no way to avoid it because the information is not up to date and the IRS does not have the most advanced technology, as we know. It’s always going to create problems simply because it is not efficient.”

The snafus will continue, and there is no plan in place to correct them. As of this writing, the IRS website does not have any guidelines concerning payments sent in error to deceased recipients.

 

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