Distributing the Green (Cards): Permanent Residency and Personal Income Taxes after the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 / Elizabeth U. Cascio, Ethan G. Lewis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cascio, Elizabeth U.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Lewis, Ethan G.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w24872.

NBER working paper series no. w24872

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Distributing the Green

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.

Summary:

We explore how permanent residency affects personal income tax participation and net personal income tax payments using variation from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), which authorized the largest U.S. amnesty to date. We exploit the timing and geographic unevenness of IRCA's legalization programs alongside newly digitized data on personal income taxes in California, home to the majority of applicants. Green Cards induced the previously unauthorized to file state income tax returns at rates comparable to other California residents. While the new returns generated little additional revenue through the end of the 1990s, they did raise the incomes of families with children through new claims of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2018.