• doctorcrimson@lemmy.today
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    1 year 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.

    • theUnlikely
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      1 year ago

      How are they paying though? That requires some kind of identification.

      • lanolinoil@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

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

      • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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        1 year 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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          1 year 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.

      • doctorcrimson@lemmy.today
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        1 year 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.