Illinois mother unable to claim son on taxes as government claims he's dead

Illinois resident Eboney McDaniel said her tax filing to the IRS each year gets rejected as the federal government insists her son is dead — even though he is not.

The bizarre situation started five years ago after the boy’s father died, Eboney McDaniel, an Elgin resident, told WLS-TV. The two share a last name but not a birthdate or first name, and when she went to go file her taxes that year, she was rejected with a notice that her son’s social security number was rejected.

"As I file him on my taxes, his social security number is rejected. And it's rejected because it's coming up as a death in the system," McDaniel explained to the local outlet. "To see him deceased on paper, it's gut-wrenching. It's a feeling no parent should ever feel."