From: Paul Pomes <ppomes@Qualcomm.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 05:43:03 +0800
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: Re: Plea from a parent who wants to keep their kid free of SSNs
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970925115935.1676I-100000@well.com>
Message-ID: <27735.875222424@zelkova.qualcomm.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



We also did not provide our children's SSNs for the last few years.  We
obtained and supplied them rather than fight the IRS.  In the Social
Security Number FAQ <http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/ssn/ssn.faq.html>
is this section:

Registering your Children

The Family Support Act of 1988 (Pub. L. 100-485) requires states to require
parents to give their Social Security Numbers in order to get a birth
certificate issued for a newborn. The law allows the requirement to be
waived for "good cause", but there's no indication of what may qualify.

Section 1615 of the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 strengthened
the requirement for taxpayers to report SSNs for dependents over one year
of age when they are claimed as a deduction. ( H.R.3448
<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d104:h.r.03448:>, became PL104-188
8/20/96.) The new law allows the IRS to treat listing a dependent without
including an SSN as if it were an arithmetic error. This apparently means
that the taxpayer isn't allowed to petition the tax court.

/pbp