Pinoy ‘TNTs’ and the $1,200 stimulus check

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“Every time I hear a politician mention the word ‘stimulus,’ my mind flashes back to high school biology class, when I touched battery wires to a dead frog to make it twitch.”—Robert Kiyosaki

 

BACK in 2008, we helped encourage some kababayans who have overstayed their temporary visitor’s visa and who have worked “under the table” in California to file their income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), a bureau of the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Those who file an income tax return are issued with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).

In the absence of a Social Security Number (SSN), an ITIN can be used to open a bank account on a case to case basis, among other documentary purposes and financial transactions within the United States.

Fearing that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “might monitor them” as overstaying aliens and with a TNT (tago ng tago) status, some of them ignored our suggestions and backtracked.

No transaction with the IRS, no monitoring of our movements and whereabouts, some of them argued.

The IRS does not discriminate against those who file income tax, we emphasized to them.

It does not determine whether certain taxpayers are TNTs and illegal aliens as long as the transaction is valid, we insisted.

 

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The IRS, actually, performs only three main functions—tax return processing, taxpayer service, and enforcement.

The USCIS and the DHS might have access to IRS data, as well as other federal agencies, but they would never use the act by any TNT or illegal alien of paying an income tax to the IRS as reason to arrest and deport him—unless he commits a crime.

The only thing to fear is fear itself, as they always say.

The advantages of filing an income tax return with the IRS far outweigh the disadvantages, which are sometimes only in their minds.

In fact, it never crossed our imagination that 12 years later, an ITIN can play a big and decisive role to help “bail out” TNTs and illegal aliens caught in the financial quagmire.

The ITIN they acquired and have been using to religiously pay their income tax annually have become their saving graces.

Twelve years later, or in the year 2020, coronavirus butchered the United States, which resulted in the declaration of a mind-blowing home quarantine to slow down cases of infections and deaths.

Job losses followed suit as the lockdown prolonged.

 

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This compelled congress to pass a law that would give the Americans stimulus packages—1. The CARES Act; 2. HEROES Act— to cushion the economic impact.

Under the proposed $3 trillion Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions, or HEROES Act, another batch of stimulus payments for most households would be authorized.

In the first round of stimulus checks directed by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES Act in March, only taxpayers with Social Security Number were included in the $1,200 stimulus check.

ITIN-issued taxpayers weren’t qualified.

Under the HEROES Act, taxpayers with ITIN are expected to also get a stimulus check worth $1,200.

The exclusion of some Americans in the CARES Act was severely criticized by advocacy groups and taxpayers alike.

Most Americans would get more money in a second stimulus under the HEROES Act, according to the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

Its analysis found that the average household would receive $2,170 in the HEROES Act, compared with $1,729 for the first stimulus checks in the CARES Act.

Unless they have children or dependents who qualify for a $1,200 payment, wealthier Americans would be excluded in the HEROES Act. Like the first stimulus round, the cutoff would be $98,000 for single taxpayers and $199,000 for married couples.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)