The Internal Revenue Service is considering adding a citizenship disclosure question to Form 1040, the standard federal income tax return filed by more than 150 million Americans each year, according to anonymous sources cited by Reuters.
Agency officials are evaluating two versions of the form for the upcoming tax year. The first contains only minor updates reflecting changes in tax law. The second includes those updates plus a checkbox reading: “Check this box if you are a non-U.S. citizen or have dual citizenship.” Representatives from the Treasury Department, the IRS’s parent agency, declined to comment on the proposal.
Federal law requires all individuals earning U.S.-sourced income to file annual tax returns and pay what they owe, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. Noncitizens who are ineligible for a Social Security number may use an individual taxpayer identification number, or ITIN, to file Form 1040.
The checkbox proposal arrives as the Trump administration has moved to deepen coordination between the IRS and immigration enforcement agencies. The Treasury Department and the Department of Homeland Security formalized that relationship through a memorandum of understanding authorizing the IRS to share sensitive taxpayer data about certain undocumented immigrants with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to assist in locating individuals targeted for deportation.
Immigration advocates and tax policy groups have warned that expanded coordination between the IRS and immigration enforcement could suppress overall tax compliance. If undocumented filers stop submitting returns out of fear of being identified and reported to immigration authorities, their income goes unreported, reducing collections and breaking records the IRS relies on.
Under existing federal law, undocumented immigrants are generally barred from accessing major public benefits, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and most subsidized housing programs. Noncitizens nonetheless contribute to those programs through payroll, income, and sales taxes.
