Us Passport Application

Question:
I'm sitting here renewing my Passport. Form DSP-82 Can anyone answer these question. Why is my passport information transferred to the IRS ? There is a $500.00 penalty if you don't. Why would the IRS want this info? Why is my old Passport in English and French? ie Nationality/Nationalite'

Answer:
Because French is the language of diplomacy, in which apparently you need a few lessons. Because French is still, officially, considered the internation language. It's also the language of the international postal services. That's why your air-mail envelopes say "Par Avion." One bureaucracy takes years to change, 162 bureaucracies (or how ever many countries there are these days) obviously take centuries.

So they can track down Americans who are neglecting to file tax returns while living outside the US. US citizens, living and/or working anywhere in the world, are required to file US federal tax returns, and -- unless they can make effective use of tax provisions such as the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (Form 2555) and the Foreign Tax Credit (Form 1116) -- must pay US federal tax on their foreign earnings.

I am a US citizen, and even though I have lived and worked in Canada for the past three years, I am still legally required to file a Form 1040 every year. I also file a Form 2555, and thus get to write off all my earnings and pay no US tax at all but I still have to go to the time and effort to prepare and file the return. Quite a few Americans living abroad, however, are not as conscientious as I am either because they aren't aware of the filing requirements, or because they choose to ignore them.

The IRS is now getting US passport application info in an effort to "increase compliance" with the tax laws (i.e., find people who aren't filing). I understand the IRS and the State Department hope Congress will eventually change the law so that people who have been delinquent in filing tax returns while abroad will be unable to renew their passports until they make amends. (Exactly =why= the US feels it has a natural right to tax foreign-source income from non-residents, simply because they are US citizens, would be a good topic for another discussion.

Most other countries, FWIW, don't do this.)You hate the fact that your passport contains material written in French? In any case, it is customary for passports to include the identifying text in multiple languages, so as to increase the likelihood that a border official from wherever will understand the text in at least one of the languages used. They don't all speak English, you know. French has traditionally been the "language of diplomacy" in the Western world for a long time, and it is a pretty good assumption that no matter where you travel, any immigration checkpoint will be staffed by (or have fairly quick access to) at least one official who knows either English or French well enough to read your US passport.

Years and years and years ago, long before the U.S. became the big kid on the international block that it is , French was considered the language of diplomacy. Why? I don't know. Maybe back in those days France was a big center of art and science and culture.