$4B to undocumented workers according to IRS

[Judge Roy Bean]

A billion here, a billion there ... pretty soon you're talkin' real money!

Although undocumented workers are not eligible for federal benefits, the report released Thursday by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration concludes that federal law is ambiguous on whether these workers qualify for a tax break based on earned income called the additional child tax credit.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fed ... ml?hpid=z3

[fortinbras]

What is very likely is that illegal immigrants will not apply for any federal benefit for fear of attracting unwelcome curiosity. This means no earned income tax credit, no tax refunds, and very probably no application for Social Security, Medicare, Workers Comp, etc. If their employers are deducting payroll taxes, these people will probably never apply for a refund nor make use of whatever Soc.Sec benefit they might be accumulating.

This imbalance between payroll deductions and a total lack of refunds or benefits would seem to work to the govt's advantage.

[notorial dissent]

Logic would dictate, that if you were an “undocumented” “illegal immigrant”, that the last thing you would want to do to yourself would be to draw any more attention to yourself by filing tax forms, little things like not having a valid SSN, and the like. That is of course assuming that you make enough money to actually owe any taxes to begin with, or stay in one place for any length of time. And of course assuming that whoever you are working for is actually reporting what you are earning to begin with. It is more likely that if taxes are withheld, that they simply disappear in to the gov’t coffers never to be reclaimed if the they were even eligible.