When tax compliance is weaponized because of the "status" of an individual there is a risk in attempting compliance and a risk in non-compliance. The undocumented in the USA have a lot in common with US citizens outside the USA. (NYTImes.com gift article)www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/u…
— John Richardson (@expatriationlaw.bsky.social) 2026-04-17T12:52:36.628Z
Part A – Why tax systems be restricted to taxation and not be used as a mechanism to enforce immigration laws
The New York Times article includes:
For decades, the I.R.S. implicitly encouraged undocumented taxpayers to file a return as part of its broader mission to promote tax compliance. Before the agreement between the I.R.S. and ICE, unauthorized immigrants paid roughly $60 billion annually in federal taxes, according to an estimate by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive think tank. Much of it went to Social Security and Medicare, which are programs that undocumented immigrants cannot benefit from.
With few exceptions, taxpayer information was kept walled off from other government agencies, and that won a measure of trust among many undocumented immigrants. But under President Trump, the effort to find as many immigrants to deport as possible led the administration to try to exploit that trust.
Bottom line: The assumption that the information in a tax return would not be shared to other government agencies has been shattered. The “undocumented” have reasonable grounds for worry.
Of further interest is:
John Koskinen, who was the I.R.S. commissioner from 2013 to 2017, said the potential consequences of sharing tax data with D.H.S. were evident.
“Our job was to collect taxes owed, not enforce immigration laws,” said Mr. Koskinen. “That was the job of D.H.S. And it was clear to me that, if immigrants thought their information was going to be shared, many of them would quit filing their tax returns.”
The link in the article is a “Gift Link”. Hence, you can see the comments which are interesting.
Part B – Thinking about the FATCA related transmission of taxpayer data to the United States