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under section 3401(a)(1) that taxpayer’s SSN be disclosed when
redeeming Treasury bonds was the least restrictive means of
meeting the Government’s compelling interests “in collecting
taxes fairly, in administering its tax system properly, and in
making sure all citizens participate in that system on equal
terms”).
Petitioners argue that enforcing the SSN requirement against
them is not the least restrictive means of achieving these
government interests because the IRS waives the SSN requirement
for taxpayers who qualify for exemption from Social Security
taxes under section 1402(g). This practice was acknowledged in
the legislative history accompanying the enactment of the TIN
requirement of former section 6109(e),6 in the Tax Reform Act of
1986, Pub. L. 99-514 100 Stat 2085:
The conferees note that certain taxpayers, because of their
religious beliefs, are exempted from Social Security self-
employment taxes (section 1402(g)). The conferees intend
that these taxpayers and their dependents who currently
acquire their TIN’s from the IRS continue to be permitted to
6Former sec. 6109(e) required a taxpayer who claimed the
deduction for the dependency exemption under sec. 151(c) to
provide the dependent's TIN. Sec. 151(e) requires the same
information as did former sec. 6109(e) but changes the
enforcement mechanism for the TIN requirement from an information
reporting penalty to a disallowance of the deduction.
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Last modified: May 25, 2011