Tax day is nearly a month away and according to a report from the Treasury Department, illegal aliens will be getting billions in tax refunds off the backs of taxpayers, legally through the tax code.
IMPACT ON TAXPAYERS
Many individuals who are not authorized to work in the United States, and thus not eligible to obtain a Social Security Number (SSN) for employment, earn income in the United States. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provides such individuals with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) to facilitate their filing of tax returns. Although the law prohibits aliens residing without authorization in the United States from receiving most Federal public benefits, an increasing number of these individuals are filing tax returns claiming the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC), a refundable tax credit intended for working families. The payment of Federal funds through this tax benefit appears to provide an additional incentive for aliens to enter, reside, and work in the United States without authorization, which contradicts Federal law and policy to remove such incentives.
WHAT TIGTA FOUND
Claims for the ACTC by ITIN filers have increased from $924 million in Processing Year 2005 (the calendar year in which the tax return was processed) to $4.2 billion in Processing Year 2010. Clarification to the law is needed to address whether or not refundable tax credits such as the ACTC may be paid to those who are not authorized to work in the United States.
The IRS is also failing to notify legal workers when their identity is stolen by an illegal alien for illegal activity:
Also, employees in the Accounts Management Taxpayer Assurance Program are not taking steps to notify taxpayers when it is obvious their SSNs and names have been compromised.
A couple things wrong with this. First: Clearly the IRS knows these workers are illegal and instead of punishing them for illegal activity, they are rewarding them with tax money paid by legal and U.S. citizen workers. Second: This is just another example of why illegal immigration is an economic issue. Illegal immigration costs taxpayers billions each year in tax refunds in addition to costing states billions as they try to keep up with illegal aliens using public services without paying for them. Third: The IRS is looking the other way on identity theft, a crime that turns the lives of legal workers and U.S. citizens upside down overnight.
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