Thread: An immigrant can get a green card despite not having paid taxes

Not paying taxes won't hurt green card chances
New York Daily News



ALLAN WERNICK

An immigrant can get a green card despite not having paid taxes

Monday, March 16, 2015, 3:51 PM

BLOOMBERG

A U.S. Individual Income Tax form 1040. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service will not bar immigrants from applying for permanent residence, even if they haven't paid taxes.


Q: Must I pay all my taxes to become a permanent resident? I want to apply for my green card. I haven’t been paying taxes because I was working under another person’s name. Will my tax and work history keep me from getting my green card?
Diego, by email

A. No. You get your green card despite your not having paid taxes and having worked under another name. Once you become a permanent resident, you can reconcile your tax records. You may even qualify for tax refunds going back three years.

Unlike applicants for U.S. citizenship who must comply with U.S. tax laws to naturalize, no such rule applies to green card applicants. My guess is that your employer has deducted more taxes from your salary than you owe the government. When you become a permanent resident, get your own Social Security Card. Then, visit a Social Security Administration office to get your records straight. Beyond a tax refund, you can get credit for contributions your employer made to your Social Security retirement fund.

Q: If an undocumented immigrant gets an Individual Tax Identification Number, will immigration come after her? An undocumented member of my church is working. She wants to open a bank account. She does not have a Social Security number, so the bank suggested that she get an ITIN. She is afraid to apply because of her immigration status.
Derek, Queens

A. Tell your friend not to worry. Getting an ITIN from the Internal Revenue Service does not trigger immigration enforcement. After all, the federal government wants working people to report income and pay taxes no matter their immigration status. That policy benefits all of us. Your friend can use the ITIN to open a bank account and to report income to the IRS. She can get an ITIN by filing IRS form W-7 when she files a tax return. An increasing number of banks are opening checking and savings accounts for undocumented immigrants. The ITIN allows the bank to report income from savings or investments to the IRS.

Allan Wernick is an attorney and director of the City University of New York’s Citizenship NOW! project. Send questions and comments to Allan Wernick, New York Daily News, 7th fl., 4 New York Plaza, New York, N.Y., 10004 or email to questions@allanwernick.com. Follow him on Twitter @awernick.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.2151198

Really?! REALLY?! And there are actually people who want to keep the income tax system?! REALLY?!

Congress, do US all a huge favor and pass the FairTax bill, HR 25 in the US House of Representatives and S 155 in the US Senate, and a 10 Year Moratorium on Immigration, including all visas and green cards, work permits, and permits for asylum and refugees, all immigration except for temporary short-term student, tourist and business visitors so long as there are no work permits associated with the visa.

Between the madness of the income tax and the insanity behind our current immigration system, it's no wonder we have an $18 trillion and growing national debt, 15% poverty level and 20 million or more Americans out of work.

And, please don't delude yourselves into believing you can fix the income tax system, you can not. It's rotten to the core by design and has been since 1913 when Democrats passed this disaster. And don't think you can fix the immigration system while it's running because you can't. This system is so full of corruption, globalism, greed and Anti-American sentiment and attitudes, that you have to stop it, dismantle it, shut it down, defund it, and start all over, beginning with the Constitutional Fact that the US government has no authority to admit even 1 immigrant into the United States. Immigration is a States Right, under the Constitution. The only power the US government has under the US Constitution is to prohibit it or tax it. It's simply and clearly stated, in Article 1, Section 9.