rssStudy details taxes paid by undocumented immigrants
- 5 Comments
According to an Immigration Policy Center report released yesterday, tax day, the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy has estimated the state and local taxes paid in 2010 by households that are headed by unauthorized immigrants. #
The report indicates: #
These households may include members who are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. Collectively, these households paid $11.2 billion in state and local taxes. That included $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes, and $8.4 billion in sales taxes. #
The report shows that Florida collects $806.8 million, the third highest in the nation, in property and sales tax revenue from households headed by unauthorized immigrants. Florida does not have a state income tax. #
Wendy Sefsaf, communications director for the American Immigration Council, tells The Florida Independent that the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy runs scenarios about what impacts states tax revenue. Sefsaf adds that the institute is able to take their models, databases and assumptions on different groups and come up with tax contributions and that is what they did for the undocumented. #
Sefsaf adds these number have never been examined, because the unauthorized population is hard to track and “we make a lot of guesses of their contribution.” #
“The restrictionist movement in the U.S. spends all their time letting everyone know how much [undocumented immigrants] cost us, and they try to ignore the fact that they contribute, Sefsaf says. “We are not trying to say there are not costs associated with people, there are costs associated with everyone, but we are trying to balance out the debate. We can have a debate about who can stay and who has to go, but we have to do that with a full plate of information.” #
She points out that one of the really important considerations is that undocumented immigrants are paying taxes. While only half pay income taxes, the undocumented are paying for groceries and rent — sales and property taxes. #
“So Florida and every state has to take a look at these numbers and take this into consideration when deciding what to do at the state level,” she says, “and how to push the federal government to make some choices.” #
5 Comments
Comment posted April 19, 2011 @ 4:05 pm
What difference does it make whether illegals pay taxes or not? They are here unlawfully and they all need to be arrested, punished for their numerous crimes, and promptly booted out of the country.
Comment posted April 19, 2011 @ 9:07 pm
Because one of the racist arguments against immigration is that immigrants do not contribute to society. This study refutes the racist’s primary excuse for their hatred.
Comment posted April 23, 2011 @ 5:07 pm
Income taxes are paid under a Social Security Number. The fact that this report is made public shows that our Government is aware that illegals are using false or stolen social security numbers and are not interested in correcting the problem, Paying under the table would be corrected with E-Verifiy which our govt
also is not interested in mandating. Immigration reform is long over-due and Presidents make promises but don’t follow through.
Comment posted May 11, 2011 @ 10:49 am
Its called and ITIN. Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, not a social security number….You should probably check the facts on your story before commenting. Immigrants actually help the economy, they pay into our social security knowing that they will not receive that money and they help pay for schools also by paying taxes.
Comment posted May 11, 2011 @ 10:50 am
We are illegal in some way. They aren’t doing like us and killing us like we did when we came to this country. They are just simply trying to find something better for themselves.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
