Taxpayers in New Yorkers have been denied access to coronavirus relief package following the bipartisan bill signed by President Donald Trump.
Trump signed multiple bipartisan bills on March 27 while dedicating money to combat the spread of COVID-19 and assist states and local governments.
According to data released recently by New York’s Taxation and Finance Department, about 200,000 New Yorkers will be denied access to coronavirus relief payments from the federal government.
The $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill signed into law last month contains GOP-crafted language that makes people who use Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) ineligible for the $1,200 personal checks that the Treasury Department will begin issuing to most workers this week.
ITINs are mostly used by undocumented immigrants who can’t get Social Security numbers but still pay taxes — and in New York alone, there are 197,187 such filers, according to the data reviewed by the Daily News.
Michael Zona, a spokesman for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), said “The ITIN restriction was modeled after rules for cash assistance spelled out in the 2008 financial crisis stimulus package.”
“The restriction prevents illegal immigrants from qualifying for a U.S. taxpayer-funded program and helps reduce fraud and abuse,” said Zona, whose boss played a major role in writing the bill.
New York Rep. Grace Meng called the ITIN restriction ‘disheartening.’
Make the Road New York, an immigrant advocacy group, noted that ITIN taxpayers in the Empire State are overwhelmingly low-income workers, meaning they would have qualified for the maximum stimulus check amount if the Social Security number requirement had been scrapped from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES.
The group added that many ITIN users in New York are likely unable to work due to Gov. Cuomo’s stay-at-home order. It stressed that they have no access to unemployment benefits due to their illegal immigration status, leaving them strapped for cash as the state’s coronavirus death toll soars above 10,000.
