Trump Could Pay for Wall by Closing Tax Loophole

Lifezette ^ | Updated 16 Jan 2017 at 8:06 AM | Brendan Kirby

[upchuck]

President-Elect Donald Trump could get Mexico to pay for a wall along the southwest border of the United States and close a giant tax loophole at the same time, according to several experts.

Building the wall — and making Mexico pay for it — was a signature issue of Trump’s victorious presidential campaign. So critics pounced when he indicated earlier this month he intended to ask Congress to appropriate funds to begin construction. Broken promise, they chortled.

But the government cannot spend money without congressional authorization, and Trump has said Mexico will reimburse the Untied States for the cost. He has not laid out how that would happen, but the campaign floated a number of ideas, including using money seized from drug dealers and threatening to cut off money wired to Mexico by illegal immigrants living in the United States.

Last week, retired IRS officials Rob Warren offered the idea of cracking down on a loophole that sends billions of dollars to illegal immigrants working in the United States. Using the money for a wall would not exactly be the same as receiving a check from the Mexican government, but it could be a relatively pain-free way of paying for a wall that experts believe could cost $15 billion or more.

Warren wrote in an online publication known as The Stream that the IRS estimates it collects $468 billion less each year than it should, a statistic known as the “tax gap.” He suggested that Trump stop allowing illegal immigrants from Mexico to claim child tax credits.

“Doing so would both fulfill a campaign promise and reduce the Tax Gap,” wrote Warren, who added that many of the dependents claimed by illegal immigrants do not even live in the United States.

[xp38]

Probably lost like that $6 billion the State Dept. misplaced.

[9YearLurker]

What we have been doing is astounding.

Essentially we let illegals file for taxes here claiming so many often fictional dependents back home in Mexico (or wherever) that we “owe” and pay them massive EITC payments.

If Trump succeeds in getting the country turned around, he will have done so just in the nick of time.

[Oatka]

We are being bled dry by illegal aliens claiming child tax credits,

A while back, an employer up in Oregon told me most of his Mexican workers enter eight dependents on their W-4 (say you have nine and the IRS asks for proof). That means that it is mostly SS that get deducted, with little, if any, income tax deducted.

[etcb]

We are being bled dry by illegal aliens claiming child tax credits, some for dependents that may not exist or are in Mexico.

One year I remember reading the IRS sent out $42 billion worth of checks to illegal aliens, some 200 to the same address in Atlanta.

A citizen claiming this tax credit must produce a birth certificate and social security number for any child claimed. Illegal aliens are not required to provide any documentation. They are on the honor system.