• doctorcrimson@lemmy.today
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    10 months ago

    This one also surprises a lot of people: They pay taxes. Undocumented Immigrants in the USA paid about 11.6Bn USD in taxes in 2019 according to ITEP.

      • lanolinoil@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Their employers pay taxes on their wages through their fake ss numbers. They pay sales tax when they buy things from the store

      • doctorcrimson@lemmy.today
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        10 months ago

        https://www.irs.gov/individuals/individual-taxpayer-identification-number

        An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) is a tax processing number issued by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS issues ITINs to individuals who are required to have a U.S. taxpayer identification number but who do not have, and are not eligible to obtain, a Social Security number (SSN) from the Social Security Administration (SSA).

      • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        Perhaps not income taxes, but maybe taxes on goods and services, property taxes, etc? Can’t say for certain though.

        • doctorcrimson@lemmy.today
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          10 months ago

          If you don’t have an SSN then you still need to pay income taxes via ITIN. You don’t want to be caught for Tax Fraud as an immigrant.

    • quo@feddit.uk
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      10 months ago

      $12 billion doesn’t seem like much considering how many obscure budget items are more than that.

      There are costs to integrating new people in society. Some states do offer welfare to undocumented people, usually in the form of social programs not just cash handouts.

      A poor immigrant who couldn’t afford a doctor in their old country falls on an under-the-table job after arriving here (most corporate postings want to do eVerify). Getting cash for agricultural work means no health insurance, and no way to claim workers comp without an attorney. They go to the ER, don’t give a name, and ignore the bill they can’t pay. Hospital writes it off, and that means less revenue for the government. $x in less revenue is equivalent to $x in expenditure when you add the budget up.

      Anyone who would blame the immigrant themselves for this is a psycho, but we should acknowledge that it costs money and there’s limits to what a country can handle.

      We’ve sent $75 billion to Ukraine so far, and much more than $12 billion is being held up because the parties disagree on the border and asylum claims.

      • doctorcrimson@lemmy.today
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        10 months ago

        In my opinion the costs are much higher to not integrate new peoples. Undocumented Immigrants provide a lot of the ingredients but take none of the pie. I’m not going to sit here and say cheap labor is acceptable, but there is a point where you have to admit we wouldn’t have nearly as many workers in less desirable employment fields if not for immigrants, even if wages were higher. They are also on average younger than an aging local population.