Comments about ‘New Census mailing is not a scam’

Of course they want to know how much you make so they can take more of it away!

Income is priviledged information or they would just ask the IRS for it. If the IRS refuses to disclose then individuals have this same privacy right. This will not be on my census, if I get one. Name and address and number in household is all that is needed or should be requested. A census is to count heads, not gather personal information.

P.I., is it fun making up the law as you go along? Information you provide to the Census Bureau is never used for a criminal prosecution. Thus, the right to not self-incriminate yourself does not apply here. Also, Privacy Act restrictions do not apply here since the personally-identifiable information that the Census Bureau collects is not released publicly for at least 72 years, and much of it is never released.

The census is mandated by the Constitution, but the Constitution leaves it up to Congress to decide what questions need to be asked in order to fulfull that mandate. For each question that is asked, there is a law mandating the Census Bureau to gather the information. Therefore, refusing to fully and accurately answer each and every question is done so at your legal peril.

The Census Bureau cannot simply get the financial information from the IRS because the IRS forms do not actually ask for exactly the same information as do the Census Bureau Community Survey forms. And in any event, not everyone is legally required to file tax forms with the IRS. Everyone IS legally required to answer all Census Bureau forms presented to them.