Dear Editor,

I am more than happy to respond to Mr. Evenson’s question regarding taxes and undocumented workers.

Yes, it is true that taxes should be remitted to the government based on valid social security numbers. It is a fact that not all employers do. However, the employers that do remit withholdings to the government are doing so honestly and, more often than not, with the knowledge that certain social security numbers are invalid (they do receive letters from the Social Security Administration).

Who is not being honest is the government!

I think we all know that the IRS never loses and so they do provide a process by which undocumented individuals can obtain a TIN (tax identification number.) This allows qualifying undocumented workers to file a return.

With this they can reclaim overpaid taxes, and pay owed taxes. We all know that most immigrants, in general, do not make much money to begin with and in turn fall in the category of qualifying for EIC (earned income credit); the TIN, however, does not allow them to claim any tax credits including EIC.

So what happens to the unclaimed money? The only ones who know are the government officials who deal with it on a daily basis. All I can say is that if we are talking about approximately 4 million or so undocumented workers, and only a handful of them file a tax return, then we are talking about millions of dollars received by the government, that no one knows or asks about.

Aide Arana

Silt