Man mistakenly declared dead by IRS

MILLBROOK, Ala. (WSFA/Gray News) - An Alabama man found himself in a frustrating and bizarre scenario when he was declared dead by the IRS while he was still alive.

Every year, the federal government mistakenly adds thousands of living people to its “Death Master File,” instantly freezing bank accounts, halting federal benefits and triggering severe financial hurdles. The Social Security Administration said approximately 10,000 of the 3.1 million U.S. deaths reported annually are erroneous and must be corrected.

Kevin Root was the subject of one of those erroneous reports.

Root first realized there was a problem when his monthly Social Security payment failed to appear in his bank account. He went to his local bank branch looking for answers.

“The young teller looked at me kind of funny,” Root said. “And she goes, ‘We just got notified that you are deceased.’”

The teller informed Root that the Social Security Administration had locked down his account and requested the return of his check. She instructed him to go directly to the Social Security office to obtain an official letter proving he was still alive.

Root went to the Montgomery Social Security office and successfully secured the documentation. His bank allowed him to access his money and held off on returning the funds to the federal government, preventing him from missing a payment.

However, his relief was short-lived.

When tax season arrived in February, Root filed his federal income tax return. After waiting several weeks with no sign of his refund, he called the Internal Revenue Service’s toll-free helpline. Representatives told him the issue would be resolved within 30 days, but multiple follow-up calls yielded no results.

“Now it’s been 90 days, nothing happened,” Root said. “It’s not a money thing. It’s just, what is going on with your system? You can’t talk to somebody who actually fixes the problem.”

According to Root, a Social Security representative explained that when a person dies, a funeral home or family member submits a death certificate to the agency, where employees must manually enter the deceased person’s Social Security number.

“She thinks they transposed one of the last couple of digits, and they didn’t look at the name and the address,” Root said.

While the Social Security Administration corrected his status for his benefits, the update has yet to be fully processed by other federal agencies.

Root said he plans to call the IRS every 30 days until his refund is released. For now, he remains deceased in the eyes of the tax agency.