Colorado man fights IRS for a year after being mistakenly declared dead

The saying goes: Nothing's certain but death and taxes. But Phil Anderson's story may make you question both after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mistakenly declared him dead.

"It bothers me at work. It bothers me in my sleep," said Anderson, reading a recent letter addressed to him and his wife. "It says, 'Phil C. Anderson DECD.' They told me that means I'm deceased. Last time I checked, and in the immortal words of Monty Python, 'I'm not dead yet!'"

While he can joke now, this all started with tragedy. Anderson's daughter, who had cystic fibrosis, died in November 2022.

"She was a fighter and a wonderful person, and everybody she knew, somehow, she touched," he said.

Anderson said the IRS somehow switched his Social Security number with hers, meaning the agency thought that he was the one who died. His Colorado tax accounts have been locked, and he hasn't received his state refunds in two years (even though taxes are still taken out of every paycheck).

"They've had over a year to fix this, and they are still dragging their feet," Anderson said. "My biggest concern is how far and how deep is this going to go. When is my Medicaid going to get shut off? I'm getting ready to retire. Is that going to be a big problem? Yeah, this has morphed into a big mushroom cloud."

Denver7 Investigates reached out to U.S. Representative Brittany Pettersen, who is working to help Anderson while highlighting a larger issue in the federal government.

"When you're dealing with something that's very urgent and impacts your life, it's unacceptable," said Pettersen. "But I want to connect that that's why we need to fund services like this. So it might sound good to cut taxes and gut the IRS, but these are some of the consequences when we have huge wait times and we have services that aren't working for people."

Pettersen said her office can help people looking to solve problems like these, but fixing a broken system is more complicated.

"More than anything, I want people to know, reach out to your member of Congress because we have staff — an entire team — that's there to support you, and we can be your advocates," said Pettersen. "We can't expedite systems that are fundamentally broken and need additional resources and support, but we can help ensure that you're on the right path and getting the answers that you need."

Denver7 Investigates found similar stories across the country showing the financial impact on people mistakenly declared dead. In a statement, the Social Security Administration (SSA) said about 3.1 million deaths are reported each year and less than one-third of one percent are later corrected. Still, that means thousands of people every year are mistakenly thought to be dead.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the SSA said, "Due to privacy laws, we cannot discuss this specific case, but we will reach out to Mr. Anderson and ensure SSA records are accurate."

Meanwhile, Anderson said the IRS admitted the mistake was on its side, not the SSA, but he is still waiting for it to be corrected.

"I mean dealing with my daughter's death, and then having to deal with this brings up so much of the experiences I've been through," he said. "Somebody listening, that's the big thing."

---

Got a tip? Send it to the Denver7 Investigates team Use the form below to send us a comment or story idea you'd like the Denver7 Investigates team to check out. You can also email investigates@Denver7.com or call our newsroom at 303-832-0200. Your name Phone number Email Share your story Confirm you're not a robot