IRS Delays on Dead Taxpayer Refunds Cost Survivors, Government

IRS delays when manually processing tax refunds for deceased taxpayers are creating undue hardships on survivors and increased interest costs for the government, according to a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

TIGTA examined 609,953 cases of manual refunds from January 2021 through July 2024 and found that the IRS took an average of 444 days to issue the payments. It also found the agency miscalculated interest payments in 13% of the sample 91 manual refunds reviewed.

The IRS might owe refunds to deceased taxpayers if they died before getting refunds on a tax return filed ...