A 94-year-old World War II veteran can't file his tax return because according to the IRS, he's dead.
Siegfried Meinstein spoke to The Columbus Dispatch alive and kicking from his assisted-living home in Upper Arlington, Ohio. He spoke of ongoing woes with the Internal Revenue Service that began when an accountant tried filing an online tax return in April 2014.
The return was rejected because Social Security records had the German-born vet listed as dead, the IRS said. So Meinstein and his son went to the Social Security Administration office in Columbus where employees gave them a letter to send to the IRS to fix the grievous mistake.
Meinstein sent the letter- only to be told by the IRS that it's up to Social Security to fix the mistake, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
But the vet's son, Ron Meinstein, said Social Security claimed they never had Meinstein listed as deceased and the problem is on the IRS.
In the meantime, the IRS was cashing his dad's checks, Ron said.
Father and son went to the IRS office and were told the error would be fixed. A short time later, a disturbing IRS letter arrived in the mail:
"We are unable to process your tax return. Our records indicate that the person identified as the primary taxpayer...was deceased prior to the tax year shown on the tax form," the letter said according to the newspaper.
The IRS sent the same letter in September, another in November and yet another in late December. A service spokeswoman told the newspaper they are unable to comment about Siegfried Meinstein's situation.
After exhausting every other resource, the Meinstein family contacted the Taxpayer Advocate Service, which had no idea Meinstein was still having the problem.
The advocate service filed another return for the "deceased" Meinstein. The family is currently waiting for a reply.
"If they keep insisting, what is it you say?" Ron Meinstein jokingly asked his father, "Eventually, they'll be right?"
