My mother's husband died in 2022. Her efiled 2023 taxes were rejected due to including a deceased person, which she did not. It's only her, and she's not dead yet. She gets SSA payments. She's 89 and doing well.

They also rejected 2024 efile for the same reason. I've gone to SSA and IRS locally, I was told the SSA needed to "force an update" to their database, and her 2024 e-file was resubmitted and still bounced. I went to the local IRS again, the guy told me, "yeah, it looks good now."

It bounces right away. There's never a paper followup. Every paper filing we do, we include copies of a letter from the SSA stating, "This is your SSN, use only this number" and the legal name change document (for her use of the prior married name) and a copy of the 1099-SA.

She pays estimates and withholding, lets refunds ride to the next year, paper files, pays any balance due, so she's square with the IRS, whenever they decide to finally do the math.