IRS Won't Give Indiana Man Stimulus Checks Because They Think He's Dead

An Indiana man is having a really hard time convincing the Internal Revenue Service that he's still alive.

“Yeah, I’m still here. Definitely not dead,” Bobby Musgrove of Columbus told WTHR.

Musgrove is a living and breathing human, but the IRS thinks he's dead. It's a silly problem on the surface and Musgrove has a pretty good sense of humor about it, but it's now turning into a serious issue.

The IRS refuses to send stimulus checks and tax returns to the "dead" man, and Musgrove says the federal agency owes him close to $10,000.

The issue started about two years ago when Musgrove received a letter from the Social Security Administration expressing condolences about his death. He immediately contacted to local Social Security office to correct the mistake, and he was sent an apology letter about a month later.

That didn't fix the issue though because the Social Security Administration added Musgrove's name to the Death Master File that's shared with the IRS. But once your dead on paper, it's very hard to prove that you're still alive.

Musgrove sent repeated requests to the federal agency and even met face-to-face with IRS staff at its Indianapolis office. Despite showing up alive and with his ID cards, birth certificate, and tax returns, Musgrove is still dead to the IRS.

“They looked at me and said ‘We believe you,’ but they still couldn’t fix anything. They say it’s a Social Security problem that Social Security needs to fix. I talk to Social Security. They say it’s an IRS problem the IRS has to fix, and I’ve talked to the highest people I can talk to," he said.

WTHR even reached out to the IRS on his behalf but with no luck.

“There’s got to be somebody who can fix this. I understand mistakes can be made. I do. But the issue is mistakes can be fixed. It shouldn’t be this hard," he said.

Photo: Getty Images


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