I asked the man on the phone to read the name exactly as it appeared on the return. He gave me a name I recognized, but not because I’d ever known the man — it was the name of my husband’s best friend from the factory, a man who died in 2014. I told him that couldn’t possibly be right. He checked the taxpayer number again and said the return had been filed electronically using my Social Security number, with the marriage date entered as June 2018. I asked where the refund had gone. He said it was deposited into a joint account, and the account holder’s name matched the person listed as my spouse. I had never opened a joint account with anyone.
I called my bank and asked them to search for every account ever opened using my Social Security number. The woman found one I’d never seen, opened in 2018 and closed nine months later. There had been four deposits into it, including the $4,100 tax refund, followed by withdrawals made at ATMs in three different towns. I asked who had opened it. She said the application was completed in person, and the signature on the paperwork was mine. Then she told me something that made me stop breathing for a second. The identification used to open the account wasn’t a driver’s license. It was a passport issued in my name in 2018. I have never owned a passport.
I drove to the courthouse and requested the marriage record. The certificate was real, filed in June 2018, and my name was exactly right. The man listed beside me was the same name the IRS had given me. But the witness signatures were what made me sit down. One belonged to my husband’s sister. The other belonged to Charlene, my tax preparer. I called Charlene and asked why she’d witnessed my marriage six years ago. She started crying and said she thought I’d known about it. Then she told me she’d been asked to prepare the return because “the marriage was already on file,” and that the person who brought her the documents had also given her a copy of my passport. I asked who it was. She wouldn’t say his name. She only said, “Your husband came to my office with him the first time, and he told me you’d understand when the time came.”
