Thread: Illegal to work, but not to pay taxes {Sob warning}

Illegal to work, but not to pay taxes
Immigration - Foreigners contribute billions to a U.S. tax system that seems all but indifferent to their legal status
FACTBOX

• Cost vs. benefit
Monday, July 02, 2007
JAMES MAYER
The Oregonian Staff

Illegal immigrants pump as much as $7 billion in taxes into the Social Security trust fund each year, money that helps pay retirement and disability benefits of U.S. workers. The chances are slim that those undocumented workers will ever see a penny in retirement or other benefits.

The Oregon Center for Public Policy, a group that advocates for low-income people, estimates that illegal immigrants in Oregon pay $56 million to $79 million a year in Social Security taxes.

The question of whether illegal immigrants contribute more in total taxes than they consume in public services has no clear answer, but their contribution may be one reason the nation's tax system turns a largely blind eye to immigration.

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Consider:

Employers can easily check whether a job applicant has a valid Social Security number, but it is not required, and many don't.

An illegal immigrant who becomes legal can get credit for wages earned under a phony or stolen Social Security number.

The Social Security Administration tracks wage reports where workers' names and Social Security numbers don't match, but workers are rarely prosecuted, as stand-alone crimes, for using Social Security numbers that don't belong to them. This enormous and potentially ripe target -- currently containing 255 million records -- is off limits to immigration officials.

The Internal Revenue Service has the same mismatched information, but federal law protects the privacy of taxpayers -- no matter how they earned their money. "We don't care what you do, as long as you put it on a tax return," said Bill Steiner, IRS spokesman.

The IRS can fine employers $50 for each inaccurate wage report, but government audits have found no evidence that the fine has ever been imposed.

The IRS offers people who are not eligible for a Social Security number a special tax identification number, so they can pay income taxes owed from money earned on jobs they are not allowed to have. Since 1996, about $50 billion in income taxes has been paid under this system.

Illegal to work, but not to pay taxes
FACTBOX

• Cost vs. benefit
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The Social Security Administration sends out letters each year to employers with significant numbers of mismatched W-2 wage reports. These letters also are not generally shared with immigration officials. Although the letters warn that the mismatch does not reflect a worker's immigration status, employers often use them as a pretext to fire workers.

When federal agents swept into the Fresh Del Monte Produce plant in North Portland last month, they were armed with information that about 90 percent of the plant's workers had invalid Social Security numbers. But that information alone would not have sparked the raid, officials said.

"If you take a standard case of an unauthorized worker working under someone else's Social Security number, just so they can have the job, as a rule, it's not a great case for us," said Jonathan Lasher, a spokesman for the inspector general's office of the Social Security Administration.

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"Workers like that don't stay in one place very long. By the time we begin an investigation, the chances are they're going to be gone," Lasher said. "One worker has a relatively small impact on Social Security."

The agency does get involved if an employer is obtaining bogus Social Security numbers for its workers, which is the allegation in the Fresh Del Monte case.

Agency defends stance

These issues simmered just below the surface of the more hotly debated points of President Bush's immigration reform package that was shot down in the U.S. Senate last week.

The president's plan would have given the Department of Homeland Security more access to Social Security information. And there were proposals to deny immigrants any chance to claim Social Security benefits from past unauthorized work, and to require employers to verify the status of job applicants.

In recent congressional testimony, James B. Lockhart III, deputy commissioner for the Social Security Administration, defended the agency's philosophy:

"It should be noted that, although noncitizens may be residing and working illegally in the United States, they are contributing their labor, paying required taxes, and accumulating an earnings record with SSA in the same manner as legal workers," Lockhart said.

Illegal to work, but not to pay taxes
FACTBOX

• Cost vs. benefit
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"SSA's policy of allowing such workers who obtain legitimate (Social Security numbers) to re-create their earnings records to receive SSA benefits is drawn from the agency's mission, history and understanding of the Social Security Act, rather than from a lack of concern for immigration law."

Explanations like this infuriate foes of illegal immigration, who want to see existing laws enforced and strengthened.

"I don't buy the notion that if they pay their taxes, somehow that makes it right," said Jim Ludwick, president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform.

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Ludwick said employers should be required to check the validity of Social Security numbers of job applicants.

"That would go far toward clearing up the whole thing," he said. "If you're in the country illegally and you can't get a job, then you are likely to self-deport."

Surge in mismatches

Social Security officials say they don't know how much of the mismatch problem results from unauthorized workers but acknowledge they are probably the major cause.

The number of mismatches shot up after Congress banned employers from "knowingly" hiring illegal workers in 1986, spawning a black market in bogus Social Security cards and numbers.

Audits have revealed that a small number of employers account for a disproportionate number of reports in the no-match file, and nearly all of them are in the services, agricultural or restaurant industries.

In one case, 89 percent of the 2001 wage reports submitted by an agricultural employer in Florida contained mismatches. One Oregon employer had 18,228 suspended wage reports between 1997 and 2001, representing $68 million in wages.

Immigration-rights advocates argue that allowing law enforcement access to Social Security or tax information would lead to harassment of workers and drive more people into the underground economy.

"The individuals I work with are very much torn," said Steve Manning, a Portland immigration lawyer. "They certainly want to comply with the tax system, but at the same time, by complying with the tax system, are they going to be placing themselves in jeopardy?"

Manning said there is a lot of abuse of the no-match letter program by employers, who use it as an excuse to fire workers.

"The no-match letter isn't necessarily an indication that an individual has an irregular status. Your name could be misspelled. There's a whole range of reasons, especially when you are dealing with names that are not what I would consider prototypical names in the Social Security database such as hyphenated Hispanic names," he said.

Manning said the current system forces workers without the proper documents to break the law. And cracking down harder could make matters worse. Pushing workers to have names and Social Security numbers that match will lead to more serious forms of identity theft.

"Complying with the law, working, and paying your taxes should not be so hard," he said.

James Mayer: 503-294-4109; jimmayer@news.oregonian.com

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Manning said the current system forces workers without the proper documents to break the law. And cracking down harder could make matters worse. Pushing workers to have names and Social Security numbers that match will lead to more serious forms of identity theft.

So we need to overlook the small crimes because enforcing those laws will lead the person commit more serious ID theft???? WTH!

Thats all very dramatic...but...

How about them doing a story about the unmarried illegal alien female who earned a few thousand in "reported" income but had less then one hundred dollars of that withheld for federal taxes. Then filed for and got over a $7000 "Earned Income Tax Credit" refund back due to her anchor babies? Net profit $6900+

Yes this is legal and sadly 100% accurate!

What about the ones that get paid cash under the table. Then file for welfare and social services and free hospital stays. If they have money to send home to Mexico and purchase new cars and trucks often in cash. Why not force them to pay Dr. And Hospital bills. Like American taxpayers have to. They tell American taxpayers no insurance we can't help you UNLESS you sign a statement to guarantee payment. Then comes the liens. Why not illegals. Man are they getting a free ride or what?

Originally Posted by ICEChargerRT

Thats all very dramatic...but...

How about them doing a story about the unmarried illegal alien female who earned a few thousand in "reported" income but had less then one hundred dollars of that withheld for federal taxes. Then filed for and got over a $7000 "Earned Income Tax Credit" refund back due to her anchor babies? Net profit $6900+

Yes this is legal and sadly 100% accurate!

Add to that the illegals WHO STEAL AMERICAN IDENTITIES and have family members as far away as MESSYCO who get a social security check; or the disabled anchor baby who gets SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS; Elvira's anchor pretended to be suffering from what Dick Durbin labeled a "disability" which is why he and Obama delayed her deportation and why we can't get rid of this sow. Turns out that alleged disability was Attention Deficit Disorder WHICH IS A QUALIFIER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY CHECK.

Whatever has been paid into the system in the form of Social Security, will not come close to what is being taken out! Boo Hoo, go tell someone who give a Sh%t!
What they draw in benefits in the form of free schooling, free lunches, free medical, free wic, section 8 housing, food stamps, free legal representation (ACLU) no car insurance so you are left footing the bill...the list goes on and on...
To top it off when someone does become a legal citizen and they bring in their family members who might be mentally disabled, or elderly they then can draw from the system they never paid into!!!
Yes I agree the system is lopsided,,,but it favors those who break the laws not those who abide by them!