Taxpayer ID numbers open doors for abuse by illegal aliens

By Joe Guzzardi/capsweb.org

Established 15 years ago, the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number is a seemingly innocuous, administrative requirement that the Internal Revenue Service assigns to anyone who is employed and pays taxes. According to the IRS website, the numbers are used for federal tax reporting only. But since ITINs, as they are commonly known, are issued to wage earners regardless of immigration status, they've frequently been abused by the aliens who hold them.

Although the real estate crisis is fading from our memory, it's important to recall that the ITIN was the vehicle used in lieu of Social Security numbers which then legitimized the disastrous lending policy of providing home mortgages to unqualified illegal aliens. With bankers as their willing abettors and while the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. purposely looked the other way, aliens took out home loans using ITINs as their major form of identification. Bankers, only too eager to accommodate poverty-level applicants with balloon financing for homes they could barely make the first payment on, raked in big money.

For aliens, the ITIN is an extremely useful vehicle. Since the IRS isn't required to share its information with any other federal agency, including immigration authorities, the promise of intra-agency confidentiality allows aliens to file tax returns without fear of deportation. At the same time, holding an ITIN enables aliens to authenticate their presence in the United States and prove that they have paid taxes. This information could be crucial if Congress ever enacted an amnesty.

The ITIN's improper use is once again in the news. The Federation for American Immigration Reform in its recent analysis titled Treasury Department Says Aliens Collection Billions in Tax Credits revealed that according to the Department of Treasury's inspector general, more than $4.2 billion in additional child credits were paid out in 2010 to illegal immigrants. In 2005, the pay outs totaled $924 million. This program allows low income earners to claim a $1,000 per child credit. If the household ends up with no additional tax obligation-as most alien families do not-then $1,000 is paid to them.

Pursuant to the IG report, 72 percent of tax returns filed by ITIN users claimed this credit compared to just 14 percent of returns filed with Social Security numbers. The generous payment of these benefits represents yet another incentive for aliens to enter, reside and work in the United States without permission. Providing incentives to aliens, financial or otherwise, is against the law.

The ITIN is a sham that should be eliminated. The federal government knows that many ITIN users are illegally in the United States. Automatic acceptance of the ITIN without additional identification is tantamount to endorsing illegal immigration. At a time when Congress and the president are struggling to find ways to cut trillions of dollars from federal spending and while more than 14 million Americans are unemployed, it's unconscionable for the IRS to ignore abuse of its ITIN program that results in billions of dollars in payments made to illegal aliens. Joe Guzzardi is a senior writing fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization and his columns are syndicated in various U.S. newspapers and websites. Contact him at JoeGuzzardi@CAPSweb.org.