2012 Survey of Business Owners
I got an unusual letter in the mail today (personally identifying parts have been blurred out):
Basically it says I reported business activity in 2012 and they want me to take a survey about my business. According to the document, my participation is “MANDATORY“.
In case you are curious, the survey wasn’t very exciting. It asked me to confirm my contact information and provide a telephone number, how many people owned my business in 2012, and my ownership percentage and title.
For each owner (for me, just myself), it asked for gender, if I’m of Hispanic/Latino/Spanish origin,  my race, and whether I’ve served in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Next, it asked if two or more members of one family owned the majority of the business. Sort of a silly question, since I already told them (twice) that I was the sole owner. Last, it had a blank field where I could put any notes to help explain my answers to the survey.
That’s it. Took maybe 2 minutes to fill out. Not very exciting, and provides the Census Bureau with a lot less information than I would have expected, especially considering the cost involved in doing one of these surveys.