Immigration Restrictions
Taxpayers who filed their returns jointly are not eligible for payment if any of the persons on the tax return filed with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) instead of a social security number. For example, if a family of five had one parent with an ITIN, no money is payable to any member of the family, including US citizens with valid social security numbers. The rule was added after the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) lobbied the Senate for the change. The amendment was proposed by Senator John Ensign of Nevada.
As a result, many legal resident aliens and overseas military families did not receive any payment. US citizens who did not receive payments included those who filed a joint tax return for 2007 and included an individual taxpayer identification number, or ITIN, on the document. In this case the entire family was ineligible for the economic stimulus rebate President Bush announced in 2008. At least one million legal residents and tens of thousands of troops were affected by the law, which was designed to keep illegal immigrants from getting stimulus checks.
Read more about this topic: Economic Stimulus Act Of 2008
Famous quotes containing the word immigration:
“America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)