The IRS has their collective heads up their asses. No telling what you are going to hear from them.
For example, my wife died in early 2021, and later I filed our 2020 taxes jointly as I’d done for many years, and which was perfectly legal and correct to do.
Couple of months later I get a letter from the IRS, “Hey, you filed a joint return with a person whose SSN belonged to a someone that is deceased.” Well, no shit, assholes. Can’t you look at your records and see that we’ve filed together for the last 25 fucking years?
I had to fill out forms explaining why I filed that way and I included a copy of the death certificate. Got a refund a few months later.
This year tax season rolls around, I file jointly for the last time - as is my right - and a few weeks later get the exact same letter as last year. They couldn’t be bothered to update the file last year. So I have to fill out the same bullshit forms and send another copy of the death certificate.
Sorry to hijack your thread, but this is all to say that the IRS doesn’t know what the fuck they are doing, and your friend is probably going to have find a competent attorney that can walk the IRS through exactly how he did everything correctly.
It is disgusting just how bad that organization is. Good luck to your co-worker.