Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!ron From: ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie ) Newsgroups: net.legal Subject: Re: Don't use my SSA as a unique identifying indicia for me my name is... Message-ID: <10476@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Tue, 7-May-85 12:51:05 EDT Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.10476 Posted: Tue May 7 12:51:05 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 9-May-85 01:44:32 EDT References: <25524@lanl.ARPA> Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 41 > The place where I do my banking was a little concerned however. They seem > to have worked out a reasonable solution, though. They deduct the 20% > withholding from my interest income and provide me with a statement and > the taxpayer's identification number that they assigned me... I think > that they finally read the law and I believe that this is a reasonable > compromise. I will certainly report their $23.00 worth of interest > income each year. And they can continue to withhold 20%. > They are not being obstinate, they are required by law to withhold tax on interest for people that they do not have taxpayer identification numbers for. This is part of an attempt to start collecting tax on a lot of unreported interest earnings. Originally, they were just going to withhold the tax from everybody. What blocked this law was the postpaid reply card lobby. The banks sent their customers a card that was preaddressed to their congressmen. All you had to do was write in that you were opposed to the law and drop it in the mailbox. If you had any substantial income, you'd probably want to give the bank your social security number so you wouldn't have it withheld. Sort of defeats the idea of compound interest. The banks should not use the SSN for anything else (like credit reporting) but I don't know how you'd enforce it. Not being in the great SSN database can present problems. Try getting a credit history together. Try getting credit without history. The FAA points out that you are not required to list your SSN and if you do not, they will make up another number for your pilots license. I'd rather use my SSN, it's one less thing to remember. I wish this state would let you voluntarily use your SSN as your driver's license number rather than the godawful 13 digit SOUNDEX code they use now. -Ron Ron Natalie N-340-744-098-927 20-32 245 67 54C E2298077 0014026693 etc...