|
I apologize to readers of this newsgroup who are uninterested in
United States law. I do not know how to restrict the distribution
of this message to within the United States.
I set out to renew my passport, after discovering that it had expired.
I obtained a passport renewal application in downtown Chicago, at City
Hall, where the Federal government keeps a representative to handle
such things (the State Department offices in Chicago now see people
by appointment only, and only, moreover, if they have imminent travel
plans; walk-ins who simply want to renew an expired passport have to
use sattelite locations, like City Hall, or the Post Office).
To my surprise, the passport application asks for my social security
number, states that this information is routinely supplied to the
Internal Revenue Service, and claims that this behavior is authorized
by the Internal Revenue Code.
I have two questions:
1) Why?
2) Has this conduct been tested and upheld in the courts? Government
units, I know, often keep language on their books and in their
documents even after courts have ruled that it cannot be enforced.
(If I am not mistaken, the criminal code of Illinois still prohibits
abortions, for example.) Can I insist that they renew my passport
without giving them my social security number? Or do they have me
dead to rights?
Please be so kind as to reply to jay@m5.chi.il.us; I do not regularly read
this newsgroup. Thank you in advance for your reply.
|
| |
| |
I heard a rumor that on 19 Oct 2004 14:32:21 -0700, jay@m5.chi.il.us
(Jay F. Shachter) wrote:
I apologize to readers of this newsgroup who are uninterested in
United States law. I do not know how to restrict the distribution
of this message to within the United States.
I set out to renew my passport, after discovering that it had expired.
I obtained a passport renewal application in downtown Chicago, at City
Hall, where the Federal government keeps a representative to handle
such things (the State Department offices in Chicago now see people
by appointment only, and only, moreover, if they have imminent travel
plans; walk-ins who simply want to renew an expired passport have to
use sattelite locations, like City Hall, or the Post Office).
To my surprise, the passport application asks for my social security
number, states that this information is routinely supplied to the
Internal Revenue Service, and claims that this behavior is authorized
by the Internal Revenue Code.
I have two questions:
1) Why?
Just a guess on my part, but one possible reason might be to see
if someone is living far above their means.
If John Doe works as a crew member at Mc Donald's, and can also
fly to Paris a few times a year, the IRS might be interested.
I don't know enough to answer question two with even a guess.
Kent
--
Nie'se schlect sim'wa
|
| |
| |
Jay F. Shachter wrote:
I set out to renew my [US] passport, after discovering
that it had expired. . . . To my surprise, the passport
application asks for my Social Security Number . . . .
AFAIK, the reason for this is that many Americans living or working
outside the US overlook (or intentionally ignore) their US federal
income tax obligations with respect to non-US-source income. If an
applicant for a US passport hasn't been filing US federal income
tax returns, the IRS is going to investigate.
The US's tax law claims jurisdiction over the total income, from all
sources worldwide, of every US citizen -- even US citizens who live
and work full-time outside the US. In many cases, this creates only
a filing obligation, since various provisions in the US tax law will
frequently allow a foreign-living/working American to avoid having
to pay any US tax, but a tax return must usually still be filed even
if one's US tax bill turns out to be zero.
(Most countries, BTW, impose tax based on one's residence and/or
source of income, not on citizenship alone. AFAIK, the only country
of any economic consequence other than the US which claims a right
to tax the foreign-source income of its non-resident citizens --
solely because they are citizens -- is the Philippines.)
Rich Wales richw@richw.org http://www.richw.org
*DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer. My comments are for discussion
purposes only and are not intended to be relied upon as legal or
professional advice.
|
| |
| |
|
