In 40 of the 50 states that make up the United States, undocumented immigrants pay a higher tax rate, around 10.1 percent, than the 7.2 percent of the highest-income 1 percent of households in the country, according to a report by Americans for Tax Fairness.
The report details that undocumented immigrants in the United States contribute an average of $37.3 billion in taxes. “At the state and local levels, undocumented immigrants contribute $37.3 billion in taxes, and in 40 of the 50 states, they pay a higher effective state/local tax rate than the highest-income 1 percent of households.”
The report also noted that, based on data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), in 2022 alone, undocumented immigrants, who at that time numbered 10.9 million, paid $96.7 billion in taxes at the federal, state, and local levels.
Of that total, $19.5 billion was federal income tax and another $32.3 billion was federal payroll tax. Furthermore, “at the state and local levels, undocumented immigrants contribute $37.3 billion in taxes,” the Americans for Tax Fairness report added.
“Undocumented immigrants paid an effective federal tax rate of 5.27 percent in 2022, higher than some of the wealthiest Americans and megacorporations,” the document reiterated, emphasizing that this effective tax rate was higher for undocumented immigrants than for the five richest individuals in the United States.
Citing “tax data released by ProPublica,” the report emphasized that “of the 400 highest-earning individuals, undocumented immigrants paid a higher effective tax rate than five of the richest Americans,” and also noted that this group of immigrants paid “a higher effective tax rate than 55 megacorporations.”
