STEPHENS CITY, Va. (WUSA) -- Bill Clements is no deadbeat dad. but in early March, a letter from the IRS arrived at his Stephens City home.
"The letter's telling me that I will not receive my refund because the child support enforcement service has garnished my refund for back support taxes," says Stephens.
Nearly $4,000 was intercepted by the feds.
"The problem is I do not have children, so they chose the wrong person," says Stephens.
One wrong data entry, triggered that oh no, not again feeling in Clements. Twelve years ago, someone at the Baltimore office of Child Support Enforcement entered the social security number for a man who did owe the money but mistakenly changed just one digit.
So for the second time, Clements had to make the trip up I-95 to prove his innocence.
"Anger. I knew what I was going to have to go through again because I'd done this in '99."
So, how did this happen again?
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Human Resources tells us the agency failed to remove Clements' social security number from the state's database. And, they didn't follow their own protocol to validate the information before passing it on the IRS.
They say they are taking steps to ensure that it does not happen again.
"My biggest fear is, is it going to happen next year? Am I going to have to do this every year?"
According the IRS, Clements was supposed to get a notice six months before the tax offset letter arrived to give him a heads up about an unsettled debt. That did not happen.
Bill eventually got his $4,000 check. A Maryland spokesperson says the person who handled Clements' case is being retrained, and all the recent cases being assigned to that person are being reviewed.
The treasury's Financial Management Service of the IRS manages tax refunds and the tax offset program. A spokesman says if you get a letter about a debt you don't owe, contact the agency involved first. Then, call the 1-800 number on the offset notice to validate the information is correct.
Written by Lesli Foster
9NEWS NOW & wusa9.com