Griffin: Noncitizens Cheating Hardworking Taxpayers Out of Billions "Must Stop Now'

Press Release

Congressman Tim Griffin (AR-02) issued the following statement after cosponsoring the Refundable Child Tax Credit Eligibility Verification Reform Act (H.R. 1956):

"It's unacceptable that the IRS is allowing noncitizens to defraud hardworking American taxpayers of more than four billion dollars every year through the tax code, especially while so many politicians in Washington speak of fairness, claim current tax revenue isn't enough and advocate for higher rates. Closing this loophole will raise roughly the same amount of revenue as President Obama's gimmicky "Buffett Tax,' and we can all agree that this cheating of the system must stop now."

Under current law, undocumented workers are able to obtain an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) from the IRS. This number can be used to file tax returns and claim refundable child tax credits. Recent reports have revealed that noncitizens are claiming multiple dependents who are not citizens and who do not live in the U.S. in order to receive large tax refunds totaling in the tens of thousands of dollars. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released a report concluding that this type of fraud is costing taxpayers more than four billion dollars annually.

H.R. 1956 would protect taxpayers from being cheated by amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require individuals to provide their Social Security number in order to claim the refundable portion of the child tax credit.

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