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This is an honest question since I know nothing about these tax systems, but are illegal immigrants able to open bank accounts and thus fall under the supervisi

This is an honest question since I know nothing about these tax systems, but are illegal immigrants able to open bank accounts and thus fall under the supervision of the tax authority? EDIT: thanks for all your insights here, I learned something today which is cool. I can't help but be a bit philosophical about this thinking that illegal imigrants are denied citizenship (which, to be honest, I think is fine and would prefer the legal route for something like this) but the government is happy to collect its payment from them.

alephnerd 2y ago
All you need is a valid form of government ID (eg. passport, driver's license) and a source of income to open a bank account without immediately getting AMLed. That said, most undocumented migrants don't understand these complex systems and will go unbanked by being cash first or using hawala networks
gruez 2y ago
>but are illegal immigrants able to open bank accounts and thus fall under the supervision of the tax authority? The typical employee is taxed via withholding tax[1] by their employers, not through their bank accounts. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_withholding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_withholding
- migrantsmigrate 2y ago
  These people aren't getting above board jobs usually, they'll be working illegally. The person that cleans my house from time to time is undocumented, for example, but she declares income and pays taxes.
burkaman 2y ago
Yes, opening a bank account is not trivial but it is doable, and if you don't have a social security number you can get one of these to pay income taxes: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/individual-taxpayer-identification-number https://www.irs.gov/individuals/individual-taxpayer-identifi.... Here's a longer explanation: https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/how-do-undocumented-immigrants-pay-federal-taxes-an-explainer/ https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/how-do-undocumented-immigr.... Although this is difficult, it's actually pretty common: > The best evidence suggests that at least 50 percent of undocumented immigrant households currently file income tax returns using Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITINs), and many who do not file income tax returns still have taxes deducted from their paychecks. - https://itep.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/immigration2016.pdf https://itep.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/immigration2016.pdf Remember that most undocumented immigrants don't believe they've broken any laws (and many haven't), so of course they're going to pay taxes if they can.

alephnerd 2y ago

All you need is a valid form of government ID (eg. passport, driver's license) and a source of income to open a bank account without immediately getting AMLed. That said, most undocumented migrants don't understand these complex systems and will go unbanked by being cash first or using hawala networks

gruez 2y ago

>but are illegal immigrants able to open bank accounts and thus fall under the supervision of the tax authority? The typical employee is taxed via withholding tax[1] by their employers, not through their bank accounts. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_withholding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_withholding

migrantsmigrate 2y ago
These people aren't getting above board jobs usually, they'll be working illegally. The person that cleans my house from time to time is undocumented, for example, but she declares income and pays taxes.

burkaman 2y ago

Yes, opening a bank account is not trivial but it is doable, and if you don't have a social security number you can get one of these to pay income taxes: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/individual-taxpayer-identification-number https://www.irs.gov/individuals/individual-taxpayer-identifi.... Here's a longer explanation: https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/how-do-undocumented-immigrants-pay-federal-taxes-an-explainer/ https://bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/how-do-undocumented-immigr.... Although this is difficult, it's actually pretty common: > The best evidence suggests that at least 50 percent of undocumented immigrant households currently file income tax returns using Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITINs), and many who do not file income tax returns still have taxes deducted from their paychecks. - https://itep.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/immigration2016.pdf https://itep.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/immigration2016.pdf Remember that most undocumented immigrants don't believe they've broken any laws (and many haven't), so of course they're going to pay taxes if they can.