94-year-old vet can't file tax return because IRS says he's dead

Siegfried Meinstein, 94, is reportedly trying to prove to the IRS that he is still alive. (COURTNEY HERGESHEIMER/COLUMBUS DISPATCH)

There is a 94-year-old World War II vet in Ohio who just wants to pay his taxes but can't because the IRS says he’s dead.

Siegfried Meinstein has been unable to convince the IRS he is alive, living in an assisted living facility near Columbus, Ohio. The IRS has told the nonagenarian it can’t process his tax return because their records indicate he is deceased.

“It isn’t really a problem in my daily life,” Meinstein told the Columbus Dispatch Friday. “Everybody accepts my money.”

The issue with IRS has also prompted some good natured ribbing from his son.

“If they keep insisting, what is it you say?” Ron Meinstein told his father who broke his hip in a swimming pool accident but is otherwise in good health. “Eventually, they’ll be right.”

The newspaper reports that the old-timer’s troubles began in April when he filed his tax return online through his accountant.  The IRS rejected the return and the reason given was because the filer was dead according to the Social Security Administration.

A few days later, Meinstein and his son went to the Social Security office in Columbus and were told that their records did not list the elder Meinstein as deceased. The office gave the Meinsteins a letter to send to the IRS. They did only to have the IRS kick it back to Social Security.

There was some back-and-forth and then Meinstein and his son visited the local IRS office where they were informed that the problem would be resolved.

Instead, the senior citizen received a letter from the IRS that said, “We are unable to process your tax return. Our records indicate that the person identified as the primary taxpayer…was deceased prior the tax year show on the tax form.”

The Dispatch said the IRS sent Meinstein the same letter in September and in November.

The same letter arrived a third time at the end of the year despite the intercession of the Taxpayer Advocate Service to on Meinstein's behalf.

The newspaper spoke to an IRS spokeswoman who could only say that the IRS regularly gets its information from Social Security and that the best chance for a resolution to the problem was through the advocate service.

Meantime, the IRS has just sent Meinstein another letter. This one wanted to know why he had prepaid $14,000 in taxes for 2014.

The letter also wanted to inform him that the IRS had lost his tax return.