Deportation fears trigger decline in tax filings in immigrant communities
The phones rang again and again with callers asking the same questions this spring: Is it safe to file my taxes? Could I be deported?
For years, tax preparers at DAPA Multiservices Advisors in Laurel, Maryland, have told their largely working-class, Latin American clients that filing federal taxes is not only safe, but the right thing to do. Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, pay federal, state and local taxes.
But days before this year’s tax filing deadline, the IRS said it would give the Department of Homeland Security access to confidential records to aid in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. Against that backdrop, tax and financial services firms around the country told The Washington Post that they witnessed a sharp drop in tax filings.
“Our clients want to pay taxes and want to do good,” Diana Avellaneda, a DAPA co-owner, told The Post. “But what happens if immigration [authorities] came because they filed their taxes and they got deported?”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/deportation-fears-trigger-decline-tax-220745113.html