I just heard that merchants in Canada require buyers in the U.S. to provide them with social security numbers whenever they purchase something to be shipped to the U.S., because U.S. Customs requires the number with the package at the border. When I first heard this, it sounded like a hoax, how can you trust that this number isn’t exposed to every Joe Shmoe who sees your packages??
Also, if this is a law, it sort of bothers me; social security numbers were never intended for such purposes. Does anyone have a pointer to where I can more read about this?
The general rule is that only the Social Security Administration (and a few other government bodies) can require you to provide your SSN. Nothing prohibits others from asking you for a SSN, but you don’t have to give it. But then, they can decline to provide you the service if you don’t give them your SSN when they ask (just like they can decline your business for many other reasons).
I believe that any business that is legally required to obtain your SSN (generally companies that pay you money, like employers & financial companies) has to include a statement telling you what legal authority requires them to obtain your SSN. And nowdays most of them also include a statement about your privacy rights.
While the government has made it more difficult, it is still possible to be an American citizen and not have a social security number. How do you provide something that you do not have?
It is also posible to reside in the US and not be eligible to receive a social security number. There are some visas for temporary residents who are not allowed to work, and so cannot get an SSN. (My wife, daughter and youngest son have been in that situation). So how can you provide soimething that cannot have?
Since it’s a requirement to provide your children’s SSN to claim them on your tax forms for exemptions, I’d say it’d be highly unlikely that one would be able to get through life without one. It’s also required for employment, so I’d also imagine that you’d have to have one regardless.
To the above poster, the Social Sec Administration is not the only set of folks that are authorized to use your SSN. the IRS would also be on that list, along with a variety of state departments (DMV). Wether that’s legal or not is a different issue.
You don’t have to get social security numbers for your children if you are willing to live without the tax deduction. You can get a job without having a social security number. The employer is required to request it, but is not prohibited from hiring someone who refuses to obtain or provide a social security number. The same applies to bank accounts.
It is possible to work in the US, pay taxes in the US, have dependent children in the US, and for those children not to be eligible for an SSN. I’ve been in that situation. (You can get a Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TIN) for such dependent children, but it’s not the same as an SSN).
US government agencies have been tightening the noose on international trade for some time now.
Just this week, there were notices in the Canada Post branches about US customs refusing to allow packages in “recycled” boxes into the USA (that is, if such boxes have ANY product coding or writing on them not related to the sender/sendee’s current transaction). No more free boxes from the liquor store, eh!
Last year, the FDA announced that Canadians (and, one assumes, other foreigners) can no longer send any foodstuffs as gifts into the USA without first submitting prior notice to the FDA (17 points of information, including the FDA product code, the name of the grower, manufacturer, city of production, etc.). So I can no longer send Roger’s Chocolates or some nice smoked salmon down to our friends in Tempe, Arizona at Christmas. This all in the name of preventing bio-terrorism.
But wait! You can send all the gift food parcels you want IF you made the food yourself…so I can whip up any old batch of ptomaine-tainted “smoked” salmon myself, and ship it into the USA, but I can’t buy a nice, clean, professionally produced foil pouch of smoked salmon and send it to the USA without a lot of form-filling and waiting!
If this latest business is correct (about requiring SINs), then there’s one more nail in the coffin of so-called “free trade.” (And let’s be realistic–most of this red tape is more to do with good old-fashioned protectionism than anti-terrorist measures).
Same story at Fedex. Beginning October 1, 2004, it seems you can’t do business with someone in another country if you don’t want to give out your social security number: