10-28-2016, 11:32 AM
(10-28-2016, 11:11 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: The only tax an illegal immigrant can pay without violating further laws is sales tax. They can't be on payroll and collect a check unless they have forged documents, so they don't pay federal income tax or state taxes.
This is not true at all. Immigrants are given Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) and it is estimated that illegal immigrants paid about $11 Billion per year in Federal Income tax. They pay into FICA even though they will never qualify for the benefits.
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-illegal-immigrants-pay-taxes-2012-3
While the IRS does not have an estimate of how many illegal immigrants pay income tax, it has been issuing ITINs to foreigners without a Social Security number since 1996. Everson told Congress "many illegal aliens, utilizing ITINs, have been reporting tax liability to the tune of almost $50 billion from 1996 to 2003."
Hinkle told the AP that the Social Security and Medicare taxes from mismatched W2s for the same period was $41.4 billion, adding up to about $90 billion in federal taxes during the eight-year period.
These numbers are fairly similar to those that Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy came up with when calculating taxes paid by undocumented immigrants. Their final figure was $11.2 billion in 2010.
But even the ones who pay not federal income tax still pay a lot in sales tax. Here where I live sales tax is around 10%, and 40 cents per gallon on gas. And while there is no sales tax on rent the landlord's property taxes are paid out of the rental income.
So someone working for cash under the table making $25,000 pays well over $2000 in taxes. A legal worker (single person) making $25,000 would pay about $1700 in federal income tax. So that is still a net positive in taxes paid.
Then you have to balance the cost of deporting all these people against the cost of allowing them to stay in the country. And it is hard to find an unbiased analysis of this issue. One side will inflate the cost of deportation while the other side will inflate the cost of allowing them to stay.
It is a very complicated issue.
