ATLANTA — A metro Atlanta woman said she's fighting to prove to the federal government that she's alive.
Miranda Brannan is 27 years old, and the Internal Revenue Service keeps telling her she doesn't exist - for the past ten birthdays.
"They tell me I look pretty good for a dead person," she joked.
However, Brannan said the jokes about her death are getting old, and she's grown tired of going through the same process over the last decade.
"I've been really patient with it," she said, adding that it has all been frustrating.
She said she's almost died trying to fix the issue with the IRS.
"I would try to file with TurboTax and it would reject it every year -- the same issue -- saying that I was deceased," she said.
Brannan, a mother of 5, said the process has grown more troubling as she has never been able to claim her children as dependents.
That's not the only issue.
She's had trouble turning on her electricity, getting financing to buy a car, and now she can't get a loan to buy a house.
She said she needs help, so she turned to 11Alive's Kaitlyn Ross to get results, to get a taste of the process herself.
First was a call to the IRS with agents directing the issue to Tax Advocate. That service bumped the issue to Social Security, who passed the issue back to the IRS.
Brannan said she has been calling the same agencies for a decade and even files her tax papers in person just to prove she tried. Despite the effort, they're still rejected.
"I talk to the tax preparer, IRS, social security and everyone seems to be blown away," she said. "Even the attorney(s), I've talked to a few attorneys, none of them have heard of this situation."
Eventually, Brannan got a letter from the social security office proving that she's alive. But that may not be enough.
The IRS said the issue probably started with a data breach the agency suffered in 2014, Brannan said, but added she still has to jump through hoops to file.
Attorneys tell her they can fix it -- but it will cost her $10,000.
"They owe me money at this point, and I shouldn't have to pay to fix it," she said.
11Alive's Kaitlyn Ross contacted Congressman Drew Ferguson's Office. There's a specialist that works with federal agencies and they got in touch with Brannan Tuesday to say they're taking up her case.
Brannan tells 11Alive that she wants to believe the office can fit it -- but at this point, she's not holding her breath.