NEW YORK – A proposed change to the federal tax return would require U.S. taxpayers to report their citizenship and work authorization status to the Internal Revenue Service, adding a new certification to the annual form filed by nearly every worker.
Trump administration officials say the requirement would help prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving federal benefits for which they do not qualify and could save taxpayers as much as $2 billion. Taxpayer and privacy advocates, however, warn that the information could become a tool for locating and deporting people who are in the country illegally.
“It could be used as an immigration enforcement tool and that is probably the reason why they are doing this,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute.
For most Americans, the proposal would amount to another checkbox—and another piece of personal information provided to the government. For people living in the U.S. without legal status, the decision would be far more consequential: They could state on a tax return that they are not authorized to live in the country, or falsely claim otherwise, an offense that can carry felony penalties. Some could respond by abandoning tax filing altogether.
“It’s dragging the IRS into this administration’s immigration policies,” said Nina Olson, executive director for the Center for Taxpayer Rights.
The IRS released a draft of its 2026 Form 1040 in late August. The form asks: “At the time you file your return, are you, and your spouse if filing jointly, a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or an alien lawfully authorized to work in the U.S.?” Separate “Yes” and “No” boxes appear for the taxpayer and spouse. A draft of Schedule 3-A, which is used to claim refundable tax credits, contains a similar question.
The proposed questions would be mandatory. To submit a return, every filer would have to certify their citizenship or immigration status to the IRS under penalty of law.
The Treasury Department says the change is intended to stop undocumented immigrants from claiming refundable credits, including the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit. Those programs are available to qualifying low- and middle-income workers and families and often produce a refund.
A Treasury official said in a statement that the information would remain “subject to a variety of privacy, disclosure and other legal protections.” The department did not clarify whether the data could be shared with immigration enforcement agencies.
Although they may lack authorization to live or work in the United States, undocumented immigrants still pay taxes. A 2024 report from the National Taxpayer Advocate identified 3.8 million returns filed using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN. ITINs serve several purposes, but undocumented workers who cannot obtain Social Security numbers are among those who rely on them.
IRS figures show that people who filed those nearly 4 million returns paid $14.4 billion in income taxes, along with $6.5 billion in Social Security and Medicare taxes.
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Claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit requires a valid Social Security number rather than an ITIN. For every EITC claim, the IRS compares the Social Security number with records maintained by the Social Security Administration.
That existing verification process leads Olson to question whether the new requirement is needed.
“Your citizenship or residency status is not information the IRS needs to process a return. It’s not even information the IRS needs to process these tax credits,” she said. “The IRS already has Social Security data on taxpayers, as well as ITIN information. It already has what it needs to process a return.”
People without permanent legal status are generally barred from federal benefits under welfare reforms enacted by Congress in the mid-1990s. In most cases, a taxpayer must be a U.S. citizen or green card holder to receive the EITC or CTC, although limited exceptions exist.
The proposed policy would also disqualify some immigrants who currently meet the requirements for the credits. Those potentially affected include recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, people with temporary protected status and temporary workers in the U.S. on H1-B visas.
In its proposal, the Trump administration contends that the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act—the law governing eligibility for certain benefit programs—should also apply to refundable tax credits. A research paper released this week estimates that the policy would strip 671,000 people, including 309,000 children, of the EITC. Another 1.1 million people, including 574,000 children, would lose the Additional Child Tax Credit.
Researchers from Boston University, Columbia University and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said most children losing access to the credits would be U.S. citizens. Their eligibility would be affected because of the citizenship or immigration status of one or more parents.
This is not the administration’s first attempt to use the IRS to advance its immigration agenda. Last year, the Treasury Department agreed to provide confidential immigrant taxpayer information to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help identify and deport people who were in the country illegally.
A federal judge blocked that data-sharing agreement, ruling that it violated federal taxpayer privacy laws. The injunction remains in place while the case proceeds through the courts. Before the arrangement was stopped, however, the IRS had reportedly provided ICE with the addresses of 47,000 people.
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