Distributing the Green (Cards): Permanent residency and personal income taxes after the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cascio, Elizabeth U.; Lewis, Ethan G.
• 署名单位: Dartmouth College; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.11.005
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 135-150
• 关键词: Income taxes; immigration; Legalization; amnesty; Green Card; EITC

摘要

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 (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.