Payments to the Dead

Ugh.  Uggggh, ugggggggh, UGGGGGGGGGGH!

Our stupid, inept government.


IRS sends coronavirus stimulus checks to dead people

The IRS may have made this latest snafu due to the administrative resources at its disposal and the speed with which the agency has been trying to issue the one-time payments, according to tax experts.

“It could be happening because the records on the date of death are not complete or, in the rush to get money out, the IRS did not have time to match the date-of-death data to the tax return,” according to Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. 

The IRS largely relies on the SSA for up-to-date death records, experts said. But that information could take anywhere from a few months to a year or more to trickle in after someone’s death, according to Leonard Burman, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

Here’s another unanswered wrinkle, according to Holtzblatt: If the IRS accidentally tries to send a stimulus payment to a deceased individual and the money bounces back because the bank account on file is closed or the mailing address is invalid, will the IRS keep that money or is a surviving family member entitled to the funds? 

There’s one clue from the CARES Act that may hint at their being able to keep the payments, experts said. Americans who received a larger stimulus payment than they should have can keep the extra funds, according to the law.

(https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/17/irs-sends-coronavirus-stimulus-checks-to-dead-people.html)


There are millions of people...... LIVING people...... who are in desperate need of their stimulus funds.

That said, dead people are getting their stimulus....... which is definitely not going to stimulate them at all at this point.


What a freakin' mess!


Grace & Peace & Love to you all -

Matt


p.s.  Keep in mind that some of the IRS's computer systems are 50+ years old.  And just became even more costly due to all these payment errors.  See:
https://matthonnold.blogspot.com/2020/04/antique-irs-computers.html