- EL PASO, Texas (AP) - People across the country are finding some disturbing
information when they open their W-2 forms: They've been declared dead.
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- The problem appears to be that employers
used new W-2 forms with old computer software programs. As a result, an
``X'' that should have been printed in the ``pension'' box appeared in
the space denoting ``deceased.''
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- At New Mexico State University, hundreds
of employees opened their tax forms this week to find an ``X'' printed
under the word ``deceased.''
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- The same thing happened last week to
13,000 city employees in Dallas.
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- In Saratoga Springs, N.Y., 350 municipal
employees were listed as ``deceased'' on their W-2's. In Dickson, Okla.,
school teachers were checked off as dead. In Muscogee County, Ga., the
tax forms of 6,000 school employees had the fatal flaw. And in Fargo, N.D.,
state university workers were victims.
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- ``We're still trying to find out ...
what, if anything, taxpayers need to do about it,'' Steve Pyrek, an Internal
Revenue Service spokesman in Washington, said Tuesday.
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- Pyrek said he didn't know if employers
were warned that they shouldn't use last year's software with this year's
form.
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- Employers dealing with the mistake say
it shouldn't pose a problem for processing tax returns because the IRS
gets the data off computer tapes.
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- ``We don't mail the paper copies to the
IRS,'' said Mick Pytlik, director of financial systems for the North Dakota
state university system. ``We actually submit computer tape to the IRS,
and that tape is correct.''
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- Saratoga Springs Mayor J. Michael O'Connell
said ``one of the local funeral directors even called me up to offer a
special group rate.''
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- Robert Pennington, an assistant professor
of journalism at New Mexico State, asked: ``Can we collect on our life
insurance?''
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