Unlike The Walking Dead Zombies wondering the streets starving for flesh, these zombies are hungry for tax refunds. They are attempting to bring the dead back to life financially.
NBC News reports – “During tax years 2006 to 2011, 66,920 people filed using a Social Security number for someone born before June 16,1901 – that is, people who would now be age 113 and older, according to a recently released audit from Social Security’s inspector general. Those “ceneterians” (a person who lives beyond the age of 100 years) collectively reported $3.1 billion in wages, tips and self-employment income.”
This is incredibly tough to believe since there are only 39 individuals in the world that are 112 years old or more, based on information collected by the Gerontology Research Group.
One alarming issue was found during a previous audit on the Social Security administration. It was discovered that 6.5 million people born before June 16, 1901 do not have a date of death listed in the database.
I find it hard to imagine that millions of dollars can be stolen so easily by collecting false tax refunds, not to mention social security payments. The United States government has acquired a National Debt more than $16 trillion, and technology today is nothing short of amazing – yet we cannot stop issues like this from happening because we cannot tell if someone is deceased? This just doesn’t make sense to me.
There is one simple thing you can do as a tax professional to help, confirm that identity of your clients. It is a simple task, but it can potentially help save us from a tax zombie apocalypse.
