Thursday, April 19, 2007

If You Build It, They Will Come - IRS Style

by shamanic

Here's a fascinating, and no doubt underreported, article on an apparent spike in tax returns being filed by undocumented workers in the US illegally.

Apparently, a great many people have decided that the best way to get in front of possible "comprehensive immigration reform" is to start building a paper trail now, so there's been a run on individual taxpayer ID numbers (available to those without social security numbers) to allow undocumented immigrants the opportunity to file.

According to the Times, in 2005 there were 2.9 million returns filed with at least one person listed under an ITIN, with a total tax liability of $5 billion. The bulk of the 11 million ITINs in use are "generally accepted" to have gone to illegal immigrants.

These seem like numbers that even libertarians and conservatives could get behind.

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