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05-19-2007, 06:27 AM #1
Bush removes provision requiring back taxes from illegal imm
Bush removes provision requiring back taxes from illegal immigrants
By Michael Kranish
May 19, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration insisted on a little-noticed change in the bipartisan Senate immigration bill that would enable 12 million undocumented residents to avoid paying back taxes or associated fines to the Internal Revenue Service, officials said.
An independent analyst estimated the decision could cost the IRS tens of billions of dollars.
A provision requiring payment of back taxes had been in the initial version of a bill proposed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat. But the administration called for the provision to be removed due to concern that it would be too difficult to figure out which illegal immigrants owed back taxes.
The dropping of the back-tax provision was not made clear in the announcement of the immigration reform proposal on Thursday. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, speaking in reference to illegal immigrants seeking legal status, said, "You've got to pay your taxes." He did not state whether he was referring to back taxes, future taxes, or both.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel, asked in a telephone interview yesterday to clarify Chertoff's remark, said it referred only to future taxes.
"It is important that the reformed immigration system is workable and cost efficient," Stanzel said. "Determining the past tax liability would have been very difficult and costly and extremely time consuming."
Stanzel stressed that immigrants would be required to pay a fine of up to $5,000 if they want to apply for a green card to become a legal resident, although that fine is not for failure to pay taxes.
Laura Capps, a spokeswoman for Kennedy, said a provision for requiring back taxes was in Kennedy's original bill and that Chertoff called for it to be removed. "Chertoff thought it would be too challenging to accurately determine the amount of an applicant's back taxes," she said.
Administration officials said many illegal immigrants do not get paychecks that can be audited, making it difficult to determine tax liability.
But Pete Sepp, spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union, which says it has 362,000 members, was stunned that the provision was removed. While saying it would be difficult to come up with a precise estimate of the amount of back taxes owed by undocumented residents, he said it would be in the tens of billions of dollars, with a similar amount in fines for failure to pay the taxes.
"I can tell you, most law-abiding taxpayers would find that provision totally distasteful," Sepp said about the decision not to seek back taxes. "I doubt that many citizens are willing to swallow that special treatment."
Sepp said he understands that it would difficult to determine back taxes owed by illegal immigrants, and he said that many illegal immigrants would have earned too little to pay taxes. But he suggested that the administration could have come up with a plan requiring at least some tax-related payment from immigrants who are seeking to become legal residents.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washi ... mmigrants/Freedom isn't free... Don't forget the men who died and gave that right to all of us....
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05-19-2007, 07:21 AM #2
Aw come on, ISMITH,
You want the gov't to even TRY to be fair to us taxpayers????
Sorry, my sarcasm level seems high this morning.
All this idiocy with the AMNESTY BILL just leaves me in shock, that OUR gov't could betray us so badly.TIME'S UP!
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Why should <u>only</u> AMERICAN CITIZENS and LEGAL immigrants, have to obey the law?!
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05-19-2007, 07:41 AM #3
You know....why don't they stop wasting their time and just give all the illegals blanket amnesty...give each illegal family a 2-story, 5-bdrm house, 2 new cars, free educations for their children in the U.S.'s best private schools, free college tuition in the state of their choice, free lifetime health care, substantially reduced cost food, and as a "signing bonus"....$100,000 per illegal.
(can you detect a little sarcasm here??)Calderon was absolutely right when he said...."Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico".
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05-19-2007, 08:04 AM #4Originally Posted by americangirl
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05-19-2007, 08:49 AM #5
Does anyone know if Bush's wife is part mexican? I heard this and was curious.
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05-19-2007, 09:03 AM #6Originally Posted by posylady
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05-19-2007, 09:14 AM #7The Bush administration insisted on a little-noticed change in the bipartisan Senate immigration bill that would enable 12 million undocumented residents to avoid paying back taxes or associated fines to the Internal Revenue Service, officials said.
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03-28-2024, 09:54 PM in illegal immigration News Stories & Reports