This week, ICE performed a raid and arrested 680 people. Their raid focused on tax evasion, identity theft, and harboring people who illegally entered into the United States. According to Retired ICE Director Tom Homan.
Something that news coverage and officials isn’t talking about is the financial impact of however many years these people has been residing in Mississippi.
Let’s look at the current 2019, State tax brackets and see what Mississippi lost.
I’m going to make up fictitious names for this example, let’s call this person Mark, and he works at Multi-State Chicken Farms.
Mark is a 35 year old, single individual, who resides in Mississippi. He works 6, sometimes 7 days a week, and makes somewhere around $30,000.00 a year.
The following is the 2019 Mississippi Income Tax Bracket.
0% on the first $1,000 of taxable income.
3% on the next $4,000 of taxable income.
4% on the next $5,000 of taxable income.
5% on all taxable income over $10,000.
So, on the first $1,000.00, nothing is taxed.
On the next $4,000.00, it’s taxed 3%.
On the next $5,000.00, it’s taxed 4%.
On the last $20,000.00, it’s taxed 5%.
In this example, Mark’s tax responsibility would be $1,320.00.
Taking Mark’s deductions into account, he doesn’t have any children, isn’t married, and sends most of his earnings to his home country where he has a wife and children. He has no deductions, even though his exemptions would be $6,000 for filing single.
Mark is an illegal immigrant, Mark isn’t his real name, and he uses someone else’s identity, name, taxpayer’s identification number (TIN), and information. He physically doesn’t have a child at his home but claims 5 so that no state tax is taken out of his check.
Take this example with Mark, and apply it to 680 more people, who, in turn isn’t all single, where some people has children. That’s $2,400.00 shy of being, $900,000.00.
We’re talking about over three-quarter of a million dollars that Mississippi has lost in one year with 680 illegal immigrants working and not paying taxes.
Now, grant it, all of the people who was arrested probably started working at different times. Some may have worked at the raided facilities for a few years, and some maybe just started working there. But, it’s gets you to thinking.
What could Mississippi have done with $900,000.00 of lost revenue?