The future of the Social Security system was as hot a topoic as any other during the presidential election campaign. But what about the mess – albeit a smaller one – the system and millions of Americans are in right
The future of the Social Security system was as hot a topoic as any other
during the presidential election campaign. But what about the mess – albeit a
smaller one – the system and millions of Americans are in right now?
We’re
talking about the 2.4 million women nationally who must dig out their marriage
certificates and visit Social Security Administration offices to clear up
confusion over their federal tax returns. It seems that after they were married
and took their husbands’ names, the women’s Social Security numbers were
entered into the system incorrectly or were left out entirely.
In some
cases, the women apparently forgot to register their name-changes, leading to
taxpayer-identity foulups. But in just as many of the instances, if not more,
government bureaucrats made mistakes entering the information into computer
records, and now when the women file joint tax returns next spring, they and
their husbands could be denied earned income credit tax credit or the personal
exemption for their spouse.
The Internal Revenue Service, which has sent
letters about the snaful to the accursed citizens, says it’s up to the
taxpayers to correct the problem ahead of time in order to avoid lengthy delays
in tax refund payments and headache-inducing discussions and correspondence
with IRS officials. Social Security isn’t making the correction easy, either.
Instead of allowing taxpayers to mail copies of their marriage certificates,
the agency is requiring original documents. Thanks for nothing, huh?
The
next president would do these unfortunate taxpayers a huge favor by making this
issue one of his first orders of tax-related business and ordering the Social
Security Administration to correct its own mistakes.
