Irs Thinks We Owe Thousands

Some important information:

My husband has the same first and last name as his father. In 2022, they both worked for a company. His father continued to work there, and is still employed there, but my husband did not work anytime after 2022. In July of 2025, we received a letter from the IRS claiming he did not report his income correctly in 2023, and that we owed 8k in taxes because of it. We figured the company must have reported his social instead of his father’s. We call the irs to attempt to resolve, they say they will look into it, we fill out some paper work, blah blah blah, and wait several months. They get back to us, we still owe 8k, and we are incurring interest on it. We call again, there’s back and forth again for MONTHS, until they finally say ALL we need to prove he did not work there is an official letter from the company claiming he did not work there and that they did not issue him a W2. We send that in, wait another month, and they tell us this will be the final verdict. Today, we receive a letter. Lo and behold, we owe 9k now with interest. We are just so puzzled how this is even possible, and why it seems impossible for them to solve. We really cannot afford a lawyer, and it hurts even more if we have to go that route to dip into savings for something entirely out of our control. We have no idea what to do. We live in Utah for reference. His father is not a citizen, and is here on a work visa if that is important at all. Any advice would be appreciated.

Location: Utah