[Hidden-tech] US Census Survey of Business Owners

[Jan Werner]

Rich is absolutely correct.

As a longtime member of two professional organizations that are deeply 
involved with the Census Bureau, I can assure you that your responses 
will not be shared or used in any way other than for statistical 
aggregation.  The safeguards on this are actually much stricter than for 
the IRS.

Participation is, under current law, mandatory for ALL Census surveys. 
While prosecution for failure to participate is rare, not responding 
quickly will bring plenty of additional attention, if only because the 
Bureau is required to do everything possible to obtain responses from 
every sample member to reduce non-response bias in its reports.

More important, the data collected from these surveys is what is used to 
determine how the government allocates the money it spends.  Not 
answering raises the cost of data collection, i.e., wastes your tax 
dollars, and also skews the information to the detriment of those who 
refuse to respond.

Jan Werner
____________

Rich Roth wrote:
>     ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>     ** If you did, we all thank you.
>
>
>
>
> 1st off - what the IRS has pretty much stays with the IRS and you won't
> want the Census to
> have access to the kind of info anyway.,
>
> More important - what the Census wants is very different and focused on
> analysis of business types and functions.
> It is used by Small business Administration and local economic planning
> agencies.
>
> Also (and this I do have experience with this, and how planning
> commissions and agencies work)
> the information the census releases is aggregated specifically so
> individual specific information
> can not be reverse engineered.
>
> Even detailed population census information is held for 72 years:
> https://www.census.gov/history/www/faqs/genealogy_faqs/when_will_census_records_be_available.html
>
> SO you are both safer providing info to the census and helping other
> small businesses.
> As for the penalties - can't comment there
>
> Net-net:  this is a good thing to do.
> Rich/webmaster
>
> On 6/5/2014 8:56 PM, Charles D. Lappen wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Today I received a notice from the Census Bureau that I’ve been
>> “selected to participate in the 2012 Survey of Business Owners and
>> Self-Employed Persons (SBO).
>>
>> In big bold letters it says that it is MANDATORY to participate and
>> goes on to state that Title 13, USC, Sections 131 & 224 requires my
>> response.
>>
>> According to Section 224, I can be fined up to $500 if I don’t
>> participate and up to $10,000 if I falsify information.
>>
>> I’m not willing to provide the Census Bureau financial information
>> about myself. The IRS already has all of it.
>>
>> Has anyone else ever received one of these?
>>
>> Has anyone “failed” to participate and what happened, if anything?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Charles
>>
>> Helping those who LOVE their work, but HATE their paperwork.
>>
>> Charles D. Lappen, M.Ed.
>> The SOHOrganizer
>> Small Office / Home Office
>> Administrative Support Services
>>
>> Office:   413-624-5507                    1 Gilbert Drive
>> Cell:        617-797-7646                    Colrain, MA 01340
>> Fax:           413-726-6821
>>
>> PPlease consider the environment before printing this email
>>
>>
>>
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