Last week, we covered IRS Commissioner John Koskinen’s testimony about the shocking tax consequences of Obama’s executive amnesty plan. In previous testimony before Congress, Koskinen explained that illegal immigrants who were granted amnesty would be eligible to receive back-refunds in the form of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)—but only if they had registered with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN.) This means that, although the person was here illegally, they were still working and paying taxes and thus eligible for a refund. It’s a bogus loophole, but it stems from an existing IRS interpretation of their own rules, so at the end of the day it was a “fix this now” situation rather than an “end of the world” scenario.”
That was scandal enough, though, considering the divisive nature of illegal immigration itself; but this week’s testimony from Koskinen just made things a whole lot worse.
That’s right—we’ve had a “clarification.”
From the Washington Times:
On Wednesday, he said even illegal immigrants who didn’t pay taxes will be able to apply for back-credits once they get Social Security numbers.
The EITC is a refundable tax credit, which means those who don’t have any tax liability can still get money back from the government.
“Under the new program, if you get a Social Security number and you work, you’ll be eligible to apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit,” Mr. Koskinen said.
He said that would apply even “if you did not file” taxes, as long as the illegal immigrant could demonstrate having worked off-the-books during those years.
That expands the universe of people eligible for the tax credit by millions. He said only about 700,000 illegal immigrants currently work and pay taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, but as many as 4 million illegal immigrants could get a stay of deportation and work permits under the temporary amnesty, which would mean they would be eligible to claim back-refunds if they worked those years.
From 700,000 to 4 million, all getting money from the government, just like that. How much does the IRS estimate this will cost?
Mr. Koskinen said he didn’t know how much money the tax refunds would cost, and said the White House never checked with him before announcing the amnesty. He said the maximum annual credit is between $500 and $600 for an individual.
I think I’d feel better if this were a huge conspiracy; but all things considered, there’s not much to consider because the leaders of the free world literally don’t know how much this unilateral action by Obama will squeeze the taxpayers for.
Representative Rick Mulvaney (R-SC), who was responsible for the initial grillings of Koskinen, has promised to keep digging into the tax consequences of this mess of an order, saying, “This is just another example of the administration operating outside the rule of law.”
I’m almost afraid to see what he’ll find next.
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Comments
It’s time to destroy this affront to anything like a free people.
Burn down the tax code.
Make staying in the U.S. illegally uneconomical and uneasy.
The easiest method to do that is to repeal the 16th Amendment, chuck the whole tax code and replace it with a pre-refunded Sales Tax on NEW goods up to the minimum HHS guidelines based on household size at 23%.
Meaning, if you’re in a household of 4, for your minimum needs you are expected to consume $24,250. That means that you would be expected to pay tax of $5,570.50. Divide by 12. Every month you would get a “check” from the government IN ADVANCE in the amount of $464.79 to pay for you “expected” tax amount of your consumption that month (aka, your purchases up to $2,020.83 each month would be “tax free” because you have ALREADY been reimbursed for that “tax”).
If you consume LESS than $2,020.83, the Government has PAID YOU MONEY TO BE FRUGAL. If you consume MORE than $2,020.83, you are paying $0.23 on every dollar you spend beyond that amount.
No more tax returns for anybody who doesn’t own their own business, and 90% plus of all transactions end up going through about 10K businesses, meaning the IRS now has to police 10 thousand businesses rather than 360 Million individuals. For the Businesses, no more tax returns. Just a simple sheet of how many NEW products they sold and the money received thereon each month and the cutting of a check.
Yeeeeup.
That’s ONE of several MUCH better systems we could try. The one you describe having the added feature that it would HUGELY encourage the market for good used stuff.
But lets start by repealing the WORST travesty to survive the Progressive madness of the Wilson era, and the greatest single error in Constitutional history…the 16th Amendment.
Personally, I’d prefer a straight up national sales tax, without any of the additional shenanigans.
Part of the reason illegal immigration is both profitable, and such a problem in most of the country is that it is very profitable to be able to operate under multiple identities, using income based taxes and benefits to accrue significant government income.
Remove that, and go to a strict consumption tax, and the majority of the problems caused by illegal immigration disappear.
Compare the problems of illegal immigration in California, with its massive entitlement, and heavily progressive income tax system, to the way it is handled in Texas, with its strict consumption tax, and minimal welfare state.
Yes, Texas has to deal with the same pozoleros and coyotes that CA does, but we don’t have to deal with nearly the level of corruption, or tax and welfare fraud that CA does.
Damn the torpedoes, full impeachment ahead.
(Watch this flush out the GOP squishes who’ll call impeachment political suicide, The Dumbest Thing Ever, as if never ever taking a risk in confronting Obama isn’t costing them votes).
Just make sure they impeach all the Democrats in DC and all the GOPpers who are going along with this.
Most of this slush money will go to the lawyers or accountants setting up in the illegal alien zones. I heard some guy say they can claim up to four dependents even if they say the kids are in Mexico, and collect up to $7000/year, for four years. No one will ever check.
So bonuses for fired but rehired IRS agents, and bonuses for their illegal alien gardeners and nannies. Such a deal.
These guys think this is stimulus, and that it’s free money because QE and debt is all free paper. But more than that, they don’t care and want to redistribute as much as possible to their base, while flipping traditional America the bird.
So the illegal aliens have been living here illegally, but that’s okay and there will be no punishment for their deliberate violations of our immigration laws.
And the illegal aliens have been working here illegally, but that’s okay and there will be no punishment for their deliberate violations of our employment laws.
And the illegal aliens have been failing to file tax returns in the years they lived and worked here, which is illegal, but that’s okay and there will be no punishment for their deliberate violations of our tax laws.
In fact, not only are we not going to punish these serial law-breakers for their multiple and deliberate violations of many laws, but we are going to reward them with legal status (allowing them special treatment over other foreigners who abided by the rules, applied for visas, and waited in their home countries), AND we’re going to waive all the penalties for their serial violations of our employment and tax laws (a privilege not granted to citizens who commit the same offenses), AND we’re going to pay them billions of dollars in past “tax credits” which are essentially thinly-disguised welfare payments, which we can ill afford, being $18 Trillion in debt.
But there is no reason anybody should be outraged about any of this, right? Just another day in the Obamanation that our once-great country has become.
You are talking about Obama? Right? Must be!
No punishments from the Feds, however:
“He said that would apply even “if you did not file” taxes, as long as the illegal immigrant could demonstrate having worked off-the-books during those years.”
Meaning these potential illegal recipients of U.S. Gov. largesse will have to rat out those who have been employing them for years. Not easily done to start with as I doubt many of these illegals kept proper records of their payment but you can also bet that these business’s will be doing everything they can to cover their tracks as well as strongly encouraging the illegals to not talk to the feds.
Why would the businesses worry? It’s not as if anybody in this administration is actually going to prosecute them for hiring illegal aliens. In fact, Eric Holder only prosecutes businesses for NOT hiring illegal aliens!
This is simply beyond belief. How in the world could ANYONE justify this, in any way? It is dumbfounding.
Our country is no longer a country where there is a rule of law. It is rule of the administrator/bureaucrat. We are in danger of losing our Constitutional Republic. I do not think it is hyperbole to say so.
This simply CANNOT stand. DO SOMETHING SPINELESS REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS!!!!
Isn’t a “tax credit” different from a “refund”? Don’t leftists use the term “refund” to disguise the fact that they’re giving handouts to people (“who didn’t have any tax liability”) through the tax code? Don’t the same leftists also use the term “handout” to mean an actual refund or reduction in tax-taking?
No prizes for the correct answers.
I didn’t finish my last sentence: “Don’t the same leftists also use the term “handout to the rich” to mean an actual refund or reduction in tax-taking?
Correct. According to the Progressive Dictionary, a “Handout to the Rich” is when the government confiscates less of their income and/or assets. You will also hear progs refer to such tax reduction schemes as “costing” the government, and referring to taxation as “income.” You see, in their minds everything belongs to The Collective.
Demorats call this “Walking around” money. They do it for every election but now they get to do it through the IRS and it will not come out of the DNC coffers.
Illegal aliens have been getting billions of dollars in “tax credits” (which are thinly-disguised welfare payments from the U.S. Treasury, for low-income tax filers) for years now. It’s a well-known scam in the illegal alien community; they know they can claim to have multiple dependent children in Mexico (which helps them qualify for the “credits”), and nobody in the IRS is ever going to even attempt to verify their existence.
This latest outrage is just going to add millions more illegal aliens to the ongoing scam. When the administration hands out the millions of new green cards to Obama’s “amnesty” recipients, they will also instruct them how to apply for their “past-due” tax credits. And of course, there will be no way to verify their claims about how many years they worked here, or how much they made, or how many dependents they had during those years, so the IRS (as it does now) will just take their word for it — and U.S. taxpayers will end up paying out billions more dollars in phony “tax credits” to millions more illegal alien tax fraudsters.
All part of the “fundamental transformation” of our once-great nation into a corrupt, third-world, banana republic, as Obama “redistributes” our nation’s wealth more “fairly.”
Many of them have been paying taxes, they are just doing under a STOLEN SSN. One of my co-workers has filed her 88 year old mother as a dependent for years. This year she can’t as her “mother” has filed taxes for a job in Cali. The old gal has never been farther West than Hardeeville SC.