User talk:Riofore

Form W-9
Dear Riofore: Regarding this material that you posted:


 * Form W-9 does not comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) mandate, where the PRA mandates that all federal government agencies must obtain a Control Number from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before promulgating a form that will impose an information collection burden on the general public. Form W9 does not have an OMB control number.

There is no support for the statement that Form W-9 does not comply with the PRA.

Also, the PRA requirements for OMB control numbers do not apply to information collection requirements imposed by a statute. The duty to provide the information requested on a Form W-9 is imposed by a statute (in other words, by a law enacted by Congress -- in this case, the Internal Revenue Code), not by a federal government agency. The Internal Revenue Service is a government agency, but the information collected on Form W-9 is not collected pursuant to a requirement imposed by the Internal Revenue Service.

Some federal tax forms do have OMB control numbers and others do not. Over the years, many people have tried to make the argument in court that various federal tax forms do not comply with the PRA's control number requirement, and to my knowledge no court has ever ruled that any federal tax form does not comply.

Some people have also tried to argue in court that the instruction booklets that accompany various tax forms must have an OMB control number. The courts have also rejected that argument every single time.

In short, there is no such thing as a federal tax form that does not comply with the PRA. If there were, there would be some sort of ruling about that. Famspear (talk) 13:52, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

PS: The statute that imposes the duty to provide the information that is requested on Form W-9 is Internal Revenue Code section 6109. Famspear (talk) 13:57, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

What makes this PRA/OMB control number thing somewhat confusing is that because the obligation to provide the information on a given form is imposed by a statute, the failure to timely provide that information can be a criminal offense -- even if the tax form in question were not in compliance with the PRA. For example, take the Form 1040. This form has an OMB control number. But even if the control number on the form were invalid, a person who willfully fails to timely file a federal income tax return (that he is otherwise required to file) can be validly convicted of willful failure to timely file -- under section 7203 of the Internal Revenue Code. The legal obligation under the statute is to timely file the income tax return, not just to file Form 1040 specifically. Form 1040 (or Form 1040A or Form 1040EZ, etc.) happens to be the form that is supposed to be used. The reason people lose in court on the OMB control number argument with respect to Form 1040 is that even if Form 1040 did not contain a valid OMB control number, that would not relieve the individual of the legal obligation to timely file his income tax return. Famspear (talk) 15:25, 20 December 2012 (UTC)