I have a confession to make: I died two years ago. You wouldn't know it if you'd met with me, traded e-mails or phone calls with me, or stopped by the . New York State Society of CPAs' office in that time, but according to the federal government, I left the ranks of the living in May 2013. Surprised? I was too. My CPA broke the news to me a few months ago after my income tax return was rejected by the IRS. According to a study released by the Social Security Administration, the agency has a hard time telling the living from the dead in other ways, too. Thanks to poor internal controls around how the SSA updates its Death Master File, some 6.5 million Americans aged 112 or older - the vast majority believed to be dead - still have active Social Security numbers. Thieves mine these accounts to collect benefits that don't belong to them or to take out lines of credit.
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