To End The FReepathon
Posted on 12/07/2015 7:42:20 AM PST by 11th_VA
Immigration is once again threatening to jam up congressional action, this time on tax legislation.
Conservatives' concerns about benefits flowing to illegal immigrants are a major sticking point in negotiations over the package of tax breaks known as "extenders."
Congressional negotiators last week were working toward a deal to reauthorize, and in some cases expand or make permanent, a grab bag of dozens of expired and expiring tax provisions worth almost $1 trillion on a 10-year basis.
Most of the tax provisions affect businesses, but President Obama and congressional Democrats have long insisted that tax breaks for low and middle-income earners be added to the mix.
In particular, they want to re-up the expansions Obama's 2009 stimulus legislation made to the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit, currently slated to phase out in 2017. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said last week that further negotiations were dependent on the expanded child tax credit being indexed for inflation. Currently, the $1,000-per-child credit is not linked to inflation, meaning that its value decreases every year.
That is where Democrats will run head-on into congressional conservatives, who do not want to see the low-income tax credits expanded unless the IRS can cut the high rate of wrong payments.
"Conservatives in the House are going to be keenly focused on these two extenders," said Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House lawmakers. The two tax credits will "have to have integrity improvements" if negotiators want conservatives' votes, Flores said.
A similar effort to pass ambitious extenders package last year died at the last minute partly because of conservative worries about fraud and improper payments through the two tax credits. Congressional negotiators will have to reckon with those concerns if they want to send legislation to the president that does more than kick the can down the road another year.
About a quarter of benefits through the earned income tax credit and the refundable part of the child tax credit are made improperly, according to the most recent estimates from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Together, the tax credits account for $22 billion in improper payments annually, more than the federal government spends on cash welfare.
In addition, a significant amount of the improper payments in the refundable portion of the child tax credit, $4.2 billion in 2010, went to illegal immigrants, the inspector general found.
"It's something that certainly Congress needs to address," said Chris Chmielenski, a director at NumbersUSA, a group that advocates for less immigration. "It's something that entices illegal aliens to come to the United States, it's a reward for being in the country illegally, and it's certainly costing taxpayers a ton of money."
It's a concern that has taken on added importance following a string of immigration-related controversies. Most importantly, Obama's 2014 executive actions on immigration have exacerbated concerns about improper payments.
Those actions gave certain illegal immigrants access not only to the tax credits, but also to back benefits for credits they were unable to accrue before the executive actions.
Currently, illegal immigrants can claim the child tax credit with only an individual taxpayer identification number, which the IRS issues to workers who need a taxpayer identification number for tax purposes but are not authorized to work.
To claim the earned income tax credit, by contrast, workers need a Social Security number, thanks to a measure included in the 1996 welfare reform bill. Obama's 2014 executive actions, however, will allow certain illegal immigrants to apply for Social Security numbers, meaning they would be eligible for both credits.
That's a problem for groups concerned with illegal immigration as well as conservative lawmakers. "One of the things we should not do is we should not pay illegal aliens to stay in this country," said David North, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank skeptical of mass immigration.
The improper payments to illegal immigrants, though, are minor compared to the revenue those workers contribute through payroll taxes, argued Matt Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit left-of-center think tank.
This is another form of welfare, its different than traditional welfare which bribes women with kids to stay home, but its still welfare.
How can Dems demand anything?
Expires in 2017??
Let the next POTUS worry about this.
Note to Dirty Harry Reid-—(MY senator -excuse me while I retch)-—
Social Security & all Federal pensions were frozen this year based on ‘inflation indexing’ & the idea that gasoline wasn’t so expensive right now. I do not remember getting a massive increase in my SS when gasoline was $5 a gallon.
Dirty Harry has the unmitigated guts to try & give more money to illegals thru tax credits saying how their ‘purchasing power’ is being diminished.
MY purchasing power has been diminished for the past 11 years. I don’t see any relief in my future.
Dirty Harry can go to HELL for his constant pandering to illegals-—of which there are a massive quantity in Clark County where he lives.
If the Republicans can’t fight opening our borders to allow hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in so they can live off the productive US taxpayer on an ever-increasing and ever-more-generous set of Welfare benefits, then what will they fight? This is national suicide.
The communists Democrats with the Muslim leader King Obama has destroyed America and we are seeing no stopping it. Impeach King Obama and Biden. After removal we will have a Republican President Ryan since he is the Speaker of the House. He will remain until the election in which we need Trump.
Franz Kafka, please pick up the white courtesy phone
Will pigs fly?
Isn't the percentage of returns with an effective tax rate of zero close to 50%? How many illegals are in the top half of earners? I doubt that $4.2B is minor compares to the taxes illegals actually pay.
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