Study estimates that illegal immigrants paid $11.2B in taxes last year, unlike GE, which paid zero

Originally posted by Cuervo

Originally posted by ViperChili

Originally posted by Cuervo
reply to post by Truther9111776

 

I'm not even remotely convinced you read the article. In fact, I'm pretty sure you came on to post simply because you saw the word "immigrant" and wanted to make the issue about immigration.

How can anyone read the article when you don't know how to post a link?

Since you read the article, did it mention how they paid income taxes? Using a fake social security number presumably correct?

That constitutes fraud and/or identity theft.

Fixed the link. As far as paying income taxes, they come out of paychecks. For fear of deportation, they don't file, even if they would be eligible for a refund. This means that everything the feds take from their checks, they keep.

Add to that that the IRS has a route for people to file volountary taxes without a SS#....some type of ID system where people can get an ID number and send a check. Many immigrants do this in hopes of demonstrating that they have been paying taxes if an opportunity for legal citizenship ever arises.

Originally posted by Cuervo
reply to post by The Old American

 

True, there is a definite negligence on behalf of employers in enforcing immigration policy. Maybe we should start there. If you don't have work for people, you won't have to deport them; they'll leave for a more prosperous Mexico.

It's not up to employers to enforce immigration. It's the job of the Federal Government. And that policy has been ignored. Until, of course, a state decides to do something about it. Then it's somehow "unconstitutional". Figure that one out.

/TOA

reply to post by Cuervo


the whining seems to come from you
no one else

others state their feelings
you cry

sounds like some one needs
possibly amnesty

Originally posted by Truther9111776
so by your standards
talk about only what you want

break one law
fine

as long as you pay

breaking any law makes you a criminal
being an immigrant is not a crime

but breaking our immigration laws
is

No.

by my standards

I

think we

should stay on

topic.

This isn't exclusively about immigration

if you have nothing to say about the comparison

don't just talk about one

and not the other

reply to post by Cuervo


Who is really at fault, GE or the United States Government for keeping tax avoidance loopholes open?

You are demonizing the company for something the government lets them do.

If you think the problem is business, when it is rightfully government, you are blinded by a delusional hatred of corporations.

Corporations are not the enemy, government is.

The only real way to pull out of this nosedive we are in is to address both the problems if you ask me. Hit the moneymakers off the illegals where it hurts, their pockets. Outrageous fines for people caught hiring and renting to illegals. No work, no place to live, they either become legit, or go home.

For the megacorps, something has to be done to stop people from being able to have kids in china making their products for a quarter an hour, and importing and selling it here for premium price. Tax the hell out of imports maybe, make it more profitable to start manufacturing here again. We also need to kick our agriculture back into gear, drilling our own oil, cutting down on this superwarmonger BS, and reroute a lot of those funds toward viable energy alternatives.

reply to post by ViperChili


Finally, something we agree on. Tax-evading mega-corporations and undocumented workers are both the fault of the government.

Corporations need to pay their taxes, too. That's why we need the "fair tax", which is a national sales tax to take the place of income tax. If you buy something, whether you're a business or an individual, you pay the tax. Period. No getting around the rules. No silly deductions. Just pay the damn tax.

/TOA

reply to post by Cuervo


Your OP's premise is a bit odd to me in that in order to defend illegal immigration, it assumes the reader will approve of GE's actions.

As in, you feel everyone is complaining about illegal immigrants but not GE.

Well, what about us who feel both are wrong?

I don't agree with an influx of illegal immigrants into our country. I also don't agree that it is very fair for GE to get away with paying zero taxes while everyone else does.

Don't assume those who have a problem with the issues illegal immigration causes are wanting to high five the tax laws that give GE a pass.

Study estimates that illegal immigrants paid $11.2B in taxes last year

Okay, I am going to do a little math here...

Illegal immigration costs the taxpayers of California — which has the highest number of illegal aliens nationwide — $10.5 billion a year for education, health care and incarceration, according to a study released yesterday.

A key finding of the report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) said the state’s already struggling kindergarten-through-12th-grade education system spends $7.7 billion a year on children of illegal aliens, who constitute 15 percent of the student body.

The report also said the incarceration of convicted illegal aliens in state prisons and jails and uncompensated medical outlays for health care provided to illegal aliens each amounted to about $1.4 billion annually. The incarceration costs did not include judicial expenditures or the monetary costs of the crimes committed by illegal aliens that led to their incarceration.

“California’s addiction to ‘cheap’ illegal-alien labor is bankrupting the state and posing enormous burdens on the state’s shrinking middle-class tax base,” said FAIR President Dan Stein.

“Most Californians, who have seen their taxes increase while public services deteriorate, already know the impact that mass illegal immigration is having on their communities, but even they may be shocked when they learn just how much of a drain illegal immigration has become,” he said.

California is estimated to be home to nearly 3 million illegal aliens.

Mr. Stein noted that state and local taxes paid by the unauthorized immigrant population go toward offsetting these costs, but do not match expenses. The total of such payments was estimated in the report to be about $1.6 billion per year.

He also said the total cost of illegal immigration to the state’s taxpayers would be considerably higher if other cost areas, such as special English instruction, school meal programs or welfare benefits for American workers displaced by illegal-alien workers were added into the equation

We are only talking about California. .
www.washingtontimes.com...

reply to post by TKDRL


While I would say it a little differently, I agree almost completely with what you said.

We are treating these problems like western medicine treats ailments: put a bandaid on it, never mind the cause of the infection.

well they wouldn't exactly be illegal then would they? Of course even a criminal pays sales tax

reply to post by AshleyD


But that's exactly the image most people give. I'm with you on that; there are people who realize the problems with both. It's when people blindly ignore these huge profiting companies spitting in our faces, yet speak with such passion about stopping undocumented immigration, then I get a little frustrated.

I'm not saying ignore immigration. I'm saying look at the bigger picture. There are more destructive things out there.

I'm multiracial. My grandparents on my great-grandparents on my mother's side legally immigrated here about 40 years ago.

I take exception to the fact that you're trying to condone illegal immigration by saying "they pay taxes."

Here's my issue with that, and I'm sure a lot of other people would to as well.

Illegal!!! That means against the law. Okay, fine, they pay taxes. They're illegal though, give them back their money and send them back where they came from whether it's Europe, Africa, Asia or the North or South of the border. I say that for one reason, illegal means against the law. They are breaking the law by being here illegally! If you try to argue the semantics of illegality then that opens up a can of worms for everything else illegal like rape, murder, kidnapping and the like. People will start saying, "oh, yeah he/she did do that but it was only because he was angry/people forced him to etc. The whole system would come to a halt because there would be people trying to condone those actions.

How do you draw the line between what's illegal and okay and what's illegal and unacceptable. Wait, illegal encompasses a whole group of actions, and while yes, there are different punishments and sentences for different crimes, every crime has a punishment, and the punishment for being in a country illegally is deportation. In other countries that aren't as developed you may even be shot or jailed indefinitely.

One, it isn't fair to other immigrants who have gone through the motions of becoming a citizen, because illegals are taking their jobs.

Two, okay, they crossed the border illegally because they had a better opportunity here than in their country of origin. What about those legal immigrants and naturally born citizens that are hard up? That don't have a job and grew up in a bad situation and are trying to make it in life? Should they be denied the chance to make themselves better in their own country all because a foreigner wanted to bypass the system? I don't think so.

Three, laws always should be objective, not subjective. An illegal is an illegal is an illegal. If the system starts making excuses because say, "that one is sick," or "that one has family here and it would be morally wrong to separate them," if the system started making exceptions then it would no longer function as it was intended to.


Here's a good thread by jibeho:
How Mexico treats illegal aliens

reply to post by Cuervo


So a known liberal/progressive think tank comes out with this study?
Let this be known, I do not agree with the sweet heart deal GE has.
With that said, I can't find in the study what percentage of the "taxes paid by illegals" was sales, property (should not have property here), income (stolen IDs) or general taxes.

Where in the report does this get broken down, as the link is for an OpEd, and the originating site does not show the study.

reply to post by Crunkman919


It doesn't condone anything.

Everybody keeps interpreting this as "Illegal immigration is as good as law-abiding corporations"
Where it should be read as "Tax-evading mega-corporations are every bit as bad as illegal immigration"

I'm not defending immigration. I'm attacking tax-evasion.

Originally posted by Cuervo
reply to post by TKDRL

 

While I would say it a little differently, I agree almost completely with what you said.

We are treating these problems like western medicine treats ailments: put a bandaid on it, never mind the cause of the infection.

Okay let's isolate, and treat the site of the infection. Let's put a tourniquet on the southern border and northern border in order to stope the hemorrhaging.

I agree with Ron Paul, bring the troops home, stop fighting foreign wars, and put our troops on both borders. That would stop the problem at its source. Infection healed!

reply to post by Crunkman919


I've heard much worse ways to approach the issue. Now only if we could also get those soldiers to make Bank of America and GE give us our money, as well. Man, I'd join the armed forces if we got to storm corporate headquarters and simply pace along the border. (northern one, mind you; I'm a bit sensitive to sunlight)

The reason you see a lot of people railing against illegals, and not so much corps, is because a lot of those people are blue collar workers. A lot of those people are short sighted. They see with their own eyes americans out of work, and illegals working, and know it is because they work cheaper, under the table, and live 20 to an apartment. They know they are sending a majority of the money made back home, and compounding our money problems. They are forcing our quality of life to go down to meet theirs.

They really don't know a whole lot about the corps ills, it is not really reported on much, because corps own the TV. Not because they love corps, but because they simply don't know all the tricks they are pulling to keep their profits as high as possible.

Originally posted by Cuervo
reply to post by Crunkman919

 

It doesn't condone anything.

Everybody keeps interpreting this as "Illegal immigration is as good as law-abiding corporations"
Where it should be read as "Tax-evading mega-corporations are every bit as bad as illegal immigration"

I'm not defending immigration. I'm attacking tax-evasion.

The title of the thread reads "Study estimates that illegal immigrants paid $11.2B in taxes last year, unlike GE, which paid zero."

Thusly making the topic just as equally about illegal immigrants and how they relate to corporations. I say this because once you bring up an issue in relation to the original topic, as the discussion evolves, different points arise.

If you had wanted your thread to be interpreted the way you say you intended, and you wanted to discuss GE's unethical tax practices, then why not just name the thread, "Tax-evading mega-corporations like GE are bad?" By making a comparison to illegal immigration, you open up the door to discussion about illegal immigrants.