Taxing the dead is unseemly

Opinion: April 18, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

Newsday: The Social Security Administration has paused its misguided efforts to collect debts more than a decade old, including dunning children of the dead. Collection efforts should expire when the original beneficiary does.

The retreat came Monday following Washington Post reports that the government was seizing the state and federal tax refunds headed to about 400,000 people. The aim was to collect long past due overpayments of $714 million. That’s OK. But going after adult children receiving benefits on their deceased parent’s record is bureaucratic overkill.

Carolyn Colvin, the acting Social Security commissioner, called off the dogs Monday, “pending a thorough review of our responsibility and discretion under the current law to refer debt to the Treasury Department.” Read between the lines and that means it’s unclear whether Social Security officials have the legal authority to collect from anyone other than the original beneficiary.

The federal government is $17.5 trillion in debt, so it should aggressively go after what it’s owed. But when a Social Security recipient dies, efforts to settle debts arising from errors in their record also should be put to rest.