According to a 50 state report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), the 11 million-plus undocumented immigrants in the U.S. have a 50 percent tax compliance rate, which nets local and state governments $11.6 billion annually. The undocumented are on average paying a higher percentage of their income toward local and state taxes than the top 1 percent, according to policy analysts working with the ITEP. According to the ITEP data, undocumented taxpayers paid 8 percent of their income on state and local taxes, compared to 5 percent for the top 1 percent. Since 1996, immigrants who didn’t qualify to get a Social Security card have been able to apply for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) which allows them to open bank accounts and make real estate transactions. The ITEP report also showed that one in three of the nation’s undocumented families owns their own home, with states such as Idaho and New Mexico showing ownership rates as high as 46 percent.
In 2013, analysts at the Social Security Administration calculated that in 2010 undocumented immigrants had paid $13 billion into the system and were making on average $34,000 a year at the time. ITEP projects that immigration reforms proposed by President Obama in 2012 and 2014 would potentially add more than $800 million dollars in state and local tax revenue.
