Monday, May 4, 2015 | 2 a.m.
Even from the shadows, Nevada’s undocumented immigrants pay millions in state and local taxes each year.
In 2012, that funding added up to nearly $94 million in the Silver State, according to a recent study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C. think tank. Nationwide, immigrants living illegally in the United States added $11.8 billion to federal coffers that same year.
Undocumented immigrants pay sales and excise taxes for gasoline, clothing and utilities. They also pay property taxes, either directly as homeowners or indirectly as renters. (Undocumented immigrants can get home loans but not from all lenders.)
“It’s great to put specific numbers on this,” said Michael Kagan, co-director of UNLV’s Immigration Clinic. “But anyone familiar with this should not be surprised.”
President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration, stuck in legal limbo, would generate more than $3 million in additional annual public funding for Nevada, and $845 million nationally, the institute found.
“Undocumented workers are paying a substantial amount of taxes to every state,” the institute’s Executive Director Matthew Gardner said.
UNLV law professor Francine Lipman said tax figures are likely even higher because the study didn’t account for indirect taxes, such as payroll taxes, paid by undocumented immigrants.
Here's a look at what the study found:
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