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Tax IDs give illegals tighter U.S. grasp?

Many use the IRS-issued tax ID numbers to file returns in hopes of getting closer to legal status and for integration into American society.

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published January 23, 2006

CLEARWATER - Pedro Reyes traveled from Mexico to Atlanta with a tourist visa 10 years ago and has stayed in the United States ever since.

He was an architect in Mexico but said he left partly because he did not want to pay bribes to get contracts. He went to Atlanta searching for opportunity, he said, and hours after arriving, got a job cleaning buildings at night.

Reyes, 43, who now lives with his wife and three children in Holiday, said he uses a false Social Security number to work as a manager for a Dunedin cleaning company.

But like many illegal immigrants across the country, Reyes for several years has filed yearly income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service.

"I do it for tranquility," Reyes said in an interview at the Clearwater office of UNO Immigration Ministry, a nonprofit that aids immigrants. "Others do it (out of) gratefulness to the country, the society in which we have integrated ourselves, without them asking us, to give back ... to the government from what we have earned on this land."

How can immigrants with no legal right to work in the United States file tax returns?

They use an Individual Tax Identification Number, or ITIN, which the IRS provides to people who are required to pay taxes but are ineligible for a Social Security number.

Like many others, Reyes said he sends his tax documents but tells the IRS the Social Security number on his W2 form is erroneous.

The IRS then does a "correction" and credits his earnings to his tax number. He then gets a refund on his federal income taxes or a bill to pay more taxes.

"I've had both circumstances where I received and when I had to pay," he said. The most he has had to pay was $3,500.

Since 1996, the IRS has issued 9-million individual tax numbers to various people who must pay taxes. That includes foreigners living in the United States "regardless of immigration status," according to the agency.

In the underground world of illegal immigrants, using the numbers means different things to different people:

--A degree of official participation in American society.

--A hope that this will help them gain legal status in the future.

--A chance to get a refund on taxes withheld from their paychecks.

--And, in the private sector, a way to establish bank accounts and get mortgages.

The subject of the numbers comes alive in immigrant communities every tax season . In the Tampa Bay area, some Spanish-language newspapers and magazines carry articles and advertisements about the advantages.

"Are you an undocumented worker?" asks an advertisement in Mi Barrio Magazine for La Casa del Immigrante on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard in Clearwater. "The IRS grants an ITIN number to people and their dependents who don't qualify for a Social Security number. We transact that ITIN number."

People who use the tax ID numbers will be in a better position if amnesty is granted for illegal immigrants, said Alex Emmanuelli, executive director of UNO. Although it's not a sure thing, immigrants hope filing tax returns will be seen as a positive factor by the government. Or if an amnesty is contingent on having filed taxes, worked or lived here a certain number of years, they will have proof.

"I believe we need to concentrate on preparing people for that time when amnesty comes," Emmanuelli said. "If it doesn't happen, at least these people are paying taxes and receiving their money back."

To get a tax ID number, immigrants file an IRS form with documents, usually from their home country, that demonstrate their identity, date of birth and their country of citizenship.

They can get numbers for their dependents, too, even if the dependents don't live in the United States.

Three years ago, the IRS noticed that a quarter of the numbers issued had not been used to file taxes. Some had been used as Social Security numbers to get driver's licenses and jobs.

The IRS now requires that people send their tax returns with their tax number applications.

The tax ID numbers have become more popular in the past couple years, said William Rosas, director of UNO's office in West Tampa.

Employers withhold federal income, Social Security and other taxes from illegal immigrants who are paid with checks, Rosas said. But because illegal immigrants typically use fake Social Security numbers, they can't file for refunds.

Rosas said he usually advises people to get tax ID numbers for the potential immigration benefits, though some immigrants see them as a way to get a tax refund.

"This is basically a case of, you know, "We want our money,"' said Rosas.

At Latino Express in Pinellas Park, Patricia Beck said immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy and tax ID numbers make them feel part of the mainstream.

Sitting nearby, Luis Calva, who came from Mexico four years ago and installs underground cables and pipes for new housing developments, said most of his co-workers have tax numbers.

"We all think the same thing," said Calva, 42. "It has been said that whoever has paid their taxes, there was the possibility to get papers, a permit, something."

That's a common motivation nationwide, said Mari Gallagher, senior researcher at MCIC, a Chicago nonprofit research group, who studies the use of tax ID numbers among immigrants.

"I've been repeatedly surprised that there is such an interest in getting the ITIN ... and paying taxes," said Gallagher. "I have talked to many undocumented Mexicans here, in Florida, Georgia, Denver. They feel like it's a real opportunity for them to be seen in a better light. They want to be a citizen some day."

Some banks, mostly in the Midwest, allow immigrants to open accounts and get mortgages with tax ID numbers, she said. Research shows such mortgages are performing well, Gallagher said.

But she said most financial institutions are still evaluating the economic resources of the nation's estimated 11-million illegal immigrants.

Some say the tax numbers illustrate a conflict in U.S. law: illegal immigrants aren't supposed to be working, but if they do, they must file taxes.

"On the one hand, they are here," said Jan Ting, a Temple University law professor and former assistant commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

"Is it better to give them licenses or should we make life for them as hard as possible? Why make it easy for them by giving them an ID number when we could make it hard for them and give them no identification at all?"

Pedro Reyes, the immigrant in Clearwater, suggests that the tax number offers immigrants one form of official documentation in a society that officially rejects their presence while embracing their work.

"We are a group that are already glued to society," he said. "We are collaborating with dignity and a lot of physical effort. What we are lacking is a piece of paper that says, "I'm such and such. This is where I live.' Regarding the taxes ... maybe the majority of immigrants don't do their annual declaration, but the money has been taken out. Their taxes are paid."

[Last modified January 23, 2006, 00:59:12]