Re: SSN and passport

["Mark M." <markm@voicenet.com>]

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On Tue, 27 May 1997, Anonymous wrote:

>      I recently applied for a U.S. passport and, as an experiment,
> entered a SSN of 000-00-0000.  The nice lady at the counter informed
> me that it would not be processed unless I provided a valid SSN (which
> gets forwarded to the IRS).  It was my understanding that this
> disclosure was voluntary and that another form was available for
> notifying the IRS that a passport had been applied for.
> 
>      My travel plans didn't allow me the luxury of delaying the
> application process, so I provided the damn number.  Does anyone know
> the real rules for this situation?  Must passports be cleared with the
> tax goons or do they just want to keep tabs on people travelling
> abroad?

I don't know the reason, but the IRS tax code requires that all passport
applicants supply their SSNs to the IRS.  The penalty for failing to
notify is $500.  I recently encountered this situation and just left
the SSN blank.  After explaining to the lady behind the counter that
I was not required to give my SSN to the State Department, she eventually
accepted the application without the SSN.  I sent a letter to the IRS
(address where tax returns are supposed to be sent) explainging the
situation and included my SSN in the letter.  I applied for the passport
two months ago and have not been hassled by the IRS.  A sample letter
is at ftp.cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/ssn/passport.ps.  There's also more
about this in the SSN FAQ.




Mark
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