Legal Alert- US 2010 Census – April, 2010

US 2010 Census

A foreign person that has a home in the U.S. may be required to complete the U.S. Census form. If the foreign person lives less than 183 days in the U.S. home they are not required to provide detail information.

Requirements

All people age 18 and older are required by law to answer all questions to the best of their ability. However, visa holders who are staying in the U.S. for six months or less are not required to be counted must still fill out the short-form questionnaire if they own a residence in the United States.

Usual Residance

The concept used as the main principle in determining where a person should be counted for the U.S. Census is the “usual residence.” Usual residence is defined as the place where a person lives and sleeps most of the time. This place is not necessarily the same as the person’s voting residence or legal residence.

Failure to Answer

Households that fail to respond to the mail-back Census 2010 questionnaires will be visited by a census taker between April and July 2010. Refusal to respond to a follow-up census taker can result in a fine of up to $100. Persons who knowingly provide false information to the census can be fined up to $500.

Source: http://www.2010.census.gov
This information is a general summary of the regulations and should not be used in place of individualized legal, tax or investment advise for any investment or transaction. We strongly recommend you consult your attorney or tax and investment adviser regarding your particular case. Should you need additional information it will be our pleasure to assist you.

As requirement of the United States Treasury Regulations, you should be conscious of the fact that this notice has not been written to be used and it should not be used by the recipient to prevent penalties that could be imposed by U.S. Federal Law.