Full Citation

Title: Distributing the Green (Cards): Permanent Residency and Personal Income Taxes after the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2019

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI: 10.3386/w24872

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PMID:

Abstract: 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.

Url: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3222439

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Cascio, Elizabeth; Lewis, Ethan, G

Series Title: NBER Working Paper

Publication Number: w24872

Institution: NBER

Pages: 64

Publisher Location:

Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Migration and Immigration, Other

Countries: United States