While immigrants in the country without authorization do not have Social Security numbers, they can file taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN.
Reports about 3m people file using an ITIN each year, and the number of people expected to legally use them is very small.
Also says they see about $12B more paid into social security by illegals than paid out.
As Al Capone found, the government is would rather you pay tax on illegally earned money.
Every couple months I learn of another way the us government interacts with ‘undocumented’ migrants. I find it supremely silly that these people have identification numbers, pay taxes, are counted for the census and participate in elections but they’re still referred to as ‘undocumented’?? They clearly are documented, wtf does ‘undocumented’ mean then?
As Al Capone found, the government is would rather you pay tax on illegally earned money.
That was more an end run around accidentally indicting all the state and federal officials who’d gotten wrapped up in his corruption.
Capone should have gone down for murder years earlier, but too much of the early Hoover Era FBI was willing to turn a blind eye to Capone’s mafia exploits or rat out informants before they could go to trial.
Yes. But my point is that the IRS has a process for declaring and paying tax on income that you got illegally, whether it’s from being a mobster or working without the right visa.
Capone didn’t follow that process, so got done for tax evasion.
These illegal immigrants are paying their taxes, and therefore a) they aren’t exposed to prosecution for tax evasion, and b) the IRS won’t rat them out to ICE.
These illegal immigrants are paying their taxes
The vast majority of them are earning under the standard deduction and don’t actually owe anything. Individuals don’t owe taxes on income under $29.2k and the cheap labor migrants provide mean they often earn far less. Since they aren’t eligible for any refundable credits, this means there’s no incentive to file.
Where they pay their taxes is typically on the consumer end - sales, real estate, gas/utilities taxes, etc.