Trump, tax writers find doubts on plan for Social Security IDs
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and top congressional tax writers say they want to prevent undocumented workers from claiming tax breaks they aren’t entitled to by tightening up the standards, but a proposal to expand the use of Social Security numbers is finding resistance among lawmakers, including Republicans who are worried about identify theft.
Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget request would expand on language in the 1996 tax overhaul that required tax filers claiming the earned income tax credit to include a qualifying child’s name and Social Security number on the return. The administration said it would tighten the mandate to require such filers to also show they have the right to work.
The budget proposal would also add a requirement that filers claiming the child tax credit have a Social Security number and demonstrate a right to work in the U.S.
The administration says that a number of taxpayers with Social Security numbers who are claiming the EITC do not have approval to work in the country.
House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas and Senate Finance Chairman Orrin G. Hatch of Utah said an emerging tax overhaul could be a vehicle for measures similar to the administration’s proposals. The administration says it would save $40 billion over 10 years.
“That will be dealt with in tax reform,” Brady said last week.
Administration officials such as Attorney General Jeff Sessions have linked efforts to prevent bogus claims for tax breaks to other enforcement measures aimed at addressing illegal immigration.
But the revenue-raising proposal in the administration’s budget request faces strong Democratic opposition and parts of it drew a skeptical response from senior GOP senators such as Roy Blunt of Missouri and Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, who point to bipartisan support for efforts to delete — rather than mandate — Social Security numbers in documents and electronic files in order to prevent identity theft.
The worry about data theft is much greater than it was in 1996, when the Social Security number was required to claim the earned income tax credit.
“We’ve clearly got to look at all of the pay-fors in the president’s budget. Many of them will be unacceptable. And some of them, like this one, are debatable,” Blunt said.
“I think there’s some problems with using Social Security numbers,” Enzi said.