For the second year in a row, a Long Island widower is facing an almost surreal bureaucratic nightmare; the IRS has once again mistakenly listed him as deceased.
Smithtown resident Gene Indenbaum, who lost his wife in 2022 after nearly 50 years of marriage, thought he had finally corrected a critical mistake when the government wrongly declared him dead last year. But just as he was preparing to file his taxes this season, he got an all-too-familiar phone call from his accountant.
And, what was it? He was, once again, listed as deceased in the IRS system.
The ordeal started in August 2022 when Indenbaum’s wife passed away. In what he describes as a clerical blunder with devastating consequences, Social Security mistakenly recorded both of them as deceased.
He first found out the issue last year while filing his taxes. “The problem is, we have you as deceased, also,” he recalls IRS officials telling him.
“And I went, uh-oh,” Indenbaum said.
The consequences were immediate and severe. His Social Security checks stopped clearing. Medicare coverage was disrupted, and even his credit cards were flagged and shut down. After months of frustration, the IRS finally admitted their mistake. They sent him an official letter that stated, “We recently discovered that our records wrongly showed you as deceased.”
But just when Indenbaum thought he has got away with the problem, his accountant delivered shocking news.
IRS ‘kills’ Long Island man AGAIN
Widower Gene Indenbaum was mistakenly declared dead three years ago, then tried filing taxes this year — only to be told once more he was technically no longer alive
Death and taxes pic.twitter.com/pv0eUHcSVP
— RT (@RT_com) March 31, 2025
“You’re not going to believe this,” the accountant told him. “We got the same error message as we did last year. They have you listed as deceased.”
The error isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a painful reminder of his wife’s passing.
“[It] brings up everything that took place when my wife passed away,” Indenbaum shared while explaining how the bureaucratic mistake has reopened emotional wounds.
Beyond the emotional distress, the error has once again taken a toll on his finances. He is actually entitled to a tax refund. Unfortunately now, because of the IRS mix-up, he has to file for an extension. “There is no way this will get resolved in time for the deadline,” he said.
CBS News New York reached out to the IRS for a statement. But the agency declined to comment, citing privacy laws related to individual taxpayers.
The IRS erroneously says that I am dead. They owe ME money! I have been trying to get this situation corrected for more than 5 yrs! They are completely incompetent.
— Grace52 (@Grace5205505945) March 31, 2025
As rare as Indenbaum’s situation may seem, he is far from alone. The most recent data from the Social Security Administration’s advisory board estimates that between 7,000 and 12,000 people are mistakenly marked as deceased each year.
“It happens through error,” explained Karla Dennis, CEO of tax strategy firm KDA Inc.
Dennis advises anyone who finds themselves in this situation to act swiftly and contact both the IRS and Social Security to request a formal death entry correction.
“Ask for a death entry correction,” Dennis said.
As for Indenbaum, after two years of battling bureaucracy, he can only hope he won’t have to go through this ordeal again.
