Wednesday, May 28, 1997 - 02:10:42 MET

I don't know the reason, but the IRS tax code requires that all passport applicants supply their SSNs to the IRS.

The reason is obvious - they want to make sure they've got their hands on your wallet, especially if you might be the type of person who goes overseas, where there are more opportunities to move money outside their supervision. When I last renewed my passport, I had enough time to do it by mail (with the extra fee for expedited service.) Since I don't have legal knowledge that the Secretary of Social Security has issued me a number (my father gave me an SSN card when I was a kid, which he had probably had issued to him for my bank account), I had to strictly obey the law and leave the box blank :-) Not a problem. On the other hand, I know someone else who has the wrong name on her passport, because the State Department has trouble keeping track of divorced parents' name changes. She filled out the SSN on her passport applications, and a few weeks after she got the new passport, she got a letter from the IRS saying "Dear Ms. Wrong-Name: We don't have any tax returns with your name on them that match SSN that you gave the Passport Office. Please send us copies of all your last N tax returns!" Governments. How quaint.