Wednesday, February 4, 2015

IRS offers extra tax refunds to illegal immigrants granted amnesty by Obama

IRS offers extra tax refunds to illegal immigrants granted amnesty by Obama

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen confirmed Tuesday that illegal immigrants granted amnesty from deportation under President Obama's new policies would be able to get extra refunds from the IRS for money they earned while working illegally, as long as they filed returns during those years. (Associated Press)
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen confirmed Tuesday that illegal immigrants granted amnesty from deportation under President Obama’s new policies would be able to get extra refunds from the IRS for money they earned while working illegally, as long as they filed ... more >
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Tuesday, February 3, 2015
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen confirmed Tuesday that illegal 
immigrants granted amnesty from deportation under 
President Obama’s new policies would be able to get extra 
refunds from the IRS for money they earned while working illegally,
 as long as they filed returns during those years.
Illegal immigrants who are granted the amnesty will be given official 
Social Security numbers, which means they can go back and amend 
up to three years of previous tax forms to claim the Earned Income 
Tax Credit, potentially claiming billions of dollars in additional 
payments they were ineligible for before the amnesty.
Mr. Koskinen said they will have to have already filed returns for
 those back-years, and there’s a statute of limitations that governs
 how far they can go back, but said the agency’s current 
interpretation of laws would allow them to claim the EITC credit 
retroactively.
“This is the problem you get into,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, 
an Iowa Republican who demanded a solution to the loophole.
 “The IRS’s interpretation of the EITC eligibility requirements
 undermines congressional policy for not rewarding those working
 illegally in the United States.”
The loophole stems from the way the IRS handles illegal immigrants.
 While the immigrants are not authorized to work in the U.S. legally, 
the IRS still wants to be paid taxes on the earnings of those who do 
work, and so it has issued millions of Individual Taxpayer Identification 
Numbers, or ITINs, to illegal immigrants, enabling them to pay up.
Some tax credits are only eligible to those with a valid Social Security
 number. Those who get valid numbers, however, can go back and
 claim them.
The IRS website says taxpayers have until April 15 this year to file
 back to 2011 claiming tax credits they didn’t ask for in their previous
 returns, and have until April 15, 2016, to claim tax credits from 2012.
Mr. Grassley asked Mr. Koskinen to go back and revisit his agency’s
 interpretation of the laws.
The Obama administration says up to 4 million illegal immigrants 
could earn “deferred action,” or a stay of deportation and work 
permits that would accompany it. It’s uncertain how many of those 
were paying taxes using ITINs, and thus could be eligible to claim 
the EITC.
The EITC isn’t the only tax credit to be ensnared in the immigration
 debate. The IRS already pays out billions of dollars a year to illegal
 immigrants under a program known as the additional child tax credit.
The IRS says the law is vague on who is eligible for the child credit,
 so to be on the safe side they pay it out to illegal immigrants.
Backers argue that the children claimed for the child tax credit are
 likely U.S. citizens, even if their parents are here illegally, and so it
 would be unfair to strip the money.
In 2010, the government paid out $4.2 billion to illegal immigrants 
who claimed the child tax credit, the IRS’s inspector general found.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your IRS thinks that the Mexicans are stupid. They are trying to trap us. Maybe you Americans are the stupid ones for paying taxes. We dont pay them.