
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 24, 1991                   TAG: 9103230112
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: E2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED A TAX-FILING DEADLINE

If you plan to claim your child as a dependent, it's not likely you can apply for a Social Security number and get it in time to file a complete tax return. Federal law requires that current tax returns include a Social Security number for a child age 2 or older - as of Dec. 31, 1990 - if that child is a dependent.

Requirements include a certified birth certificate, and another form of identification, such as shot or school records, and parent identification. Applications can mailed or made at Social Security offices. For more information, call the Social Security Administration at 1-800-234-5772.

Normally, it takes two to three weeks to process an application, said spokeswoman Patti Patterson. But, she cautioned, the department has a backlog. So you may want to file, but may not have a number for the child.

In that case, "Go ahead and claim the child as a dependent and put on the return that you have applied for a number," said Internal Revenue Service spokeswoman Charleen McCollough. "The following year, you would have to have a Social Security number."

The requirement is a provision of the 1986 tax reform law. It has been amended for returns filed in 1992. Then, any child age 1 or older - as of Dec. 31, 1991 - must have a Social Security number.

More than 7 million dependents have disappeared from the tax rolls since the requirement went into effect, McCollough said.

by CNB