If long-dead parent owes Uncle Sam, your tax refund will be confiscated

If the government overpaid your parents a half-century ago, they are taking it out of your federal and state tax refunds today.

Hundreds of thousands are getting their tax refunds confiscated to pay the old debts, for such things as survivor benefits when today’s adult wasn’t old enough to go to kindergarten.

The Treasury Department has intercepted $1.9 billion in tax refunds this year — $75 million for debts delinquent for more than 10 years.

You can blame one sentence tucked into a farm bill lifting the 10-year statute of limitations on old debts to Uncle Sam three years ago. Since, the government has collected $424 million for debts more than a decade old.

Senators Barbara Boxer and Barbara Mikulski have asked that Social Security stop going after decades-old debt when the taxpayer involved was a child.

To read the Washington Post article on this intriguing situation, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/social-security-treasury-target-hundreds-of-thousands-of-taxpayers-for-parents-old-debts/2014/04/10/74ac8eae-bf4d-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html?tid=pm_pop