The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Releases New 50-State Study Today

With fiscal costs and benefits figuring large in the immigration reform debate, a new analysis shows that unauthorized immigrants are already paying $10.6 billion a year in state and local taxes, and provides estimates of the revenue increases for all fifty states and the District of Columbia should undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. be allowed to work here legally. The report, Undocumented Immigrants’ State and Local Tax Contributions, from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), assumes a newly legalized immigrant population of 11.2 million fully participating in the federal, state and local tax systems and estimates an overall revenue gain for states of $2 billion a year.

The report and clickable 50-state map are at www.itep.org/immigration.

States with progressive tax systems, which include an income tax, would see the most significant revenue change since it is in the income tax where compliance will increase under reform; unauthorized immigrants currently pay approximately the same level of sales and property taxes as other U.S. residents in the same income brackets.

The report provides a break down of tax payments by category (sales, income, property) for each state, before and after immigration reform, including the effect of undocumented immigrants becoming newly eligible for state EITCs. It also has key state-by-state data points on the immigrant population underlying the tax analysis, a complete methodology section and footnotes.

Read the report.