Senators ask IRS to drop immigration status question from Form 1040

• Key insight: Here's why Senate Democrats oppose a proposed citizenship checkbox on the 2026 Form 1040.
• What's at stake: The federal government's ability to collect billions in taxes from unauthorized workers.
• Expert quote: "Turning the 1040 into an immigration tracker actively sabotages voluntary tax compliance" — Sen. Ben Ray Luján and Ron Wyden
  

A group of Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee is calling on the head of the Internal Revenue Service not to ask taxpayers about their immigration status on the latest version of next year's income tax form.

Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-New Mexico, and ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, led nine of their colleagues in calling on IRS CEO Frank Bisignano to drop the newly proposed citizenship and work authorization checkbox from the final version of the 2026 Form 1040. 

A draft version of 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.?" Another new filed states, "If treating a nonresident alien or dual-status alien spouse as a U.S. resident for the entire tax year, check the box and enter their name (attach statement if required)."

In the letter, the senators outlined that adding an immigration question for the first time serves no clear tax purpose and could result in hundreds of billions of dollars in unpaid taxes. The letter also pushes for the release of the updated tax gap estimate, which has been delayed almost a year.

"We write to urge you to drop the newly proposed citizenship and work authorization checkbox from the final version of the 2026 Form 1040," the lawmakers wrote. "Adding this question for the first time in history appears to serve no legitimate tax administration purpose and risks increasing the tax gap by hundreds of billions of dollars."

"Turning the 1040 into an immigration tracker actively sabotages voluntary tax compliance and undermines the IRS's core tax collection responsibilities," the senators added. "Public trust is already at a low point after the IRS illegally handed over the private data of more than 42,000 taxpayers to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Putting this question on the front page of the Form 1040 will only discourage people from filing altogether." 

They noted that the Yale Budget Lab estimates that "weaponizing" tax filing could cost the federal government $313 billion over the next decade and endanger the $66 billion that unauthorized workers currently pay in taxes each year.

The senators also asked when the Treasury Department will publish the IRS's updated tax gap estimates or projections. They noted that the IRS released its last tax gap report in October 2024, which projected the tax gap for tax year 2022 was nearly $700 billion per year, even though it omitted perhaps the largest parts of the tax gap attributable to corporate income tax, income from flowthrough entities, foreign activities, and digital assets.

"An updated report covering the 2023 tax year was scheduled to be released in the fall of 2025," they pointed out. "The report is now almost a year late."

Introductory bullet points created by AI with editorial review.