I Tax Dead People.

Good news for Toni Lausch of Cumru Township, Pa.: the Social Security Administration has confirmed that she is indeed alive. The agency had inadvertently attached a "death coding" to Lausch's SSA records, despite the fact that she's alive and well. This attracted the notice of the IRS when Lausch tried to file a 2004 tax return. Apparently, the tax agency doesn't like to send refunds to people who are, well, not among the living. But after Lausch's story appeared in the Reading (Pa.) Eagle, SSA updated its records. Of course, because the kinks are still being worked out on the whole e-government thing, it'll be another two weeks before the change filters through the IRS recordkeeping system.