Do Amish Get Social Security Numbers? Religious Exemption Rules

Do Amish people get Social Security numbers? Most Amish children never receive one, but many Amish adults do obtain a Social Security number, often reluctantly, because the IRS requires one before it will approve the form that exempts them from Social Security and Medicare taxes. The result is a community that sits largely outside the Social Security system while, on paper, still being enumerated by it.

Why Amish Children Usually Don’t Have One

Roughly 99% of American babies receive a Social Security number through the Enumeration at Birth program, which lets parents request a number as part of hospital birth registration.¹ Amish families typically decline. Many Amish births happen at home or in birthing centers rather than hospitals, and even when a birth occurs in a hospital, requesting a number conflicts with the community’s religious objection to participating in government insurance.

So Amish children grow up with no card and no number on file. For a community that runs its own schools, rarely uses banks, and handles medical bills through internal mutual aid, that absence causes few day-to-day problems in childhood.

The Religious Basis for Opting Out

The Amish belief is that God commands the community to care for its own. When a family faces a medical crisis or financial hardship, the congregation pools money, holds benefit auctions, or draws from a shared health fund. Accepting outside insurance — whether Social Security retirement, disability, Medicare, or private coverage — is understood to signal a lack of faith in that obligation.

That religious conviction is what makes the tax exemption legally possible. The statute does not exempt people who simply dislike Social Security. It exempts members of religious sects that have continuously cared for their dependent members and have conscientiously opposed insurance since at least the end of 1950.

How the Exemption Works

Two provisions in the tax code carry the exemption. For self-employed Amish, which covers most farmers and small-business owners, IRC Section 1402(g) waives the self-employment tax that funds Social Security and Medicare.² For an Amish employee working for an Amish employer, IRC Section 3127 waives both sides of FICA, but only when both employer and employee belong to a qualifying sect.³

To qualify under either provision, three conditions must all be met:⁴

The individual must personally oppose accepting benefits from any private or public insurance that pays out for death, disability, retirement, or medical care.
The religious group must have an established practice of providing for its dependent members: food, shelter, and medical care.
The sect must have existed continuously since December 31, 1950.

The applicant also waives all rights to Social Security retirement, disability, and survivor benefits, plus Medicare. Anyone who has already received Social Security benefits is ineligible unless those benefits have been repaid in full. The exemption covers Social Security and Medicare taxes only. Federal income tax still applies, and Amish taxpayers file returns like everyone else.⁵

The exemption is not automatic. Each individual files IRS Form 4029, which is reviewed by both the SSA and the IRS before approval.⁴ The form is due by the due date of the tax return for the first year the individual has self-employment income or is a member of an approved sect.⁶ For employees, the exemption takes effect on the first day of the first full quarter after the application is received.⁷

Why Many Amish Adults End Up With a Number Anyway

Since 2004, the SSA has returned any Form 4029 filed without a Social Security number.⁸ To opt out of Social Security, you first need to be enumerated by it. Most Amish adults who obtain a number do so specifically for this filing, typically around the time they join the church in their late teens or early twenties.

The SSA accommodates the discomfort. An applicant can submit a written statement asking that the number be issued solely for Form 4029 purposes, with no physical card mailed. The SSA suppresses card issuance and annotates the file as a “4029” case.⁸ Within some Amish communities these are called “control numbers” rather than Social Security numbers, and the person who holds one may say they do not have an SSN for any other purpose.

When the Exemption Does Not Apply

The FICA exemption under Section 3127 requires that both employer and employee belong to a qualifying sect.³ When an Amish person takes a job with a non-Amish employer, at a factory, construction company, or retail store, the exemption does not apply. The employer withholds FICA like it would for any other worker, and both sides pay their share.

That leaves the Amish employee paying into a system they are religiously opposed to using, for benefits they have waived. As of 2026, there is no mechanism to recover those taxes.

Claiming Children on Tax Returns

Because Amish families pay federal income tax, dependents without SSNs come up every filing season. Historically, the IRS has allowed Amish taxpayers to write “Amish Form 4029” on the dependent identification line instead of providing an SSN, as long as an approved Form 4029 is on file and the taxpayer can document each child’s existence, age, relationship, and residence.⁹

The child tax credit adds a wrinkle. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act requires a work-authorized SSN for each qualifying child.¹⁰ On paper that would disqualify Amish children without numbers. In practice, the IRS has largely continued to let Amish taxpayers with approved Form 4029 exemptions claim the credit using a modified verification process that accepts documents like a birth certificate or hospital record in place of an SSN.⁹ The accommodation is administrative, not statutory, so it could change.

What Happens if Someone Leaves the Faith

The exemption lasts only as long as the individual and the sect keep meeting the requirements. There is no formal revocation form; the exemption automatically ends in the year the person no longer qualifies.¹¹ The individual is supposed to notify the IRS in writing within 60 days of leaving the sect and then pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on earnings going forward.

One consequence matters more than the paperwork. Only earnings posted after the exemption ends count toward Social Security benefits. Years spent under the exemption contribute nothing to the benefit calculation.¹¹ Someone who leaves the community at 40 has to accumulate enough work credits from that point on to qualify for any retirement or disability benefit at all.

1
Social Security Administration. State Processing Guidelines for Enumeration at Birth
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 1402 – Definitions
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 3127 – Exemption for Employers and Their Employees Where Both Are Members of Religious Faiths Opposed to Participation in Social Security Act Programs
4
Social Security Administration. Are Members of Religious Groups Exempt From Paying Social Security Taxes
5
Internal Revenue Service. Form 4029, Application for Exemption From Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Waiver of Benefits
6
Social Security Administration. SSA Handbook 1129 – Claiming the Tax Exemption
7
Internal Revenue Service. 4.19.6 Minister and Religious Waiver Program
8
Social Security Administration. POMS RM 10225.035 – SSNs for the Amish and Mennonites (and Other Religious Exempt Communities)
9
Taxpayer Advocate Service. Taxpayer Advocate Service Fiscal Year 2020 Objectives Report to Congress
10
Congressional Research Service. Taxpayer ID Requirements for the Child Tax Credit
11
Social Security Administration. Filing Dates, Effective Dates and Termination of Exemption