Identity Theft Isn’t Just for the Living
by Kimberly K. Rutherford
With income tax season upon us, we are inundated with warnings from the IRS to take extra caution when filing our individual income tax returns with identity theft on the rise. But identity theft also happens to Decedents.
We recently had an estate that filed a final individual income tax return for a Decedent and the estate was expecting a sizeable refund. When the refund check did not arrive, we attempted to track it down with the IRS. All calls to the IRS hit dead-end after dead-end. No agent at the Service would talk with us even though we had the Personal Representative on the phone line with us and all necessary information to validate our identity. Read more