E-Verify Making Positive Gains, House Republicans Set Immigrants Back

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E-Verify, an electronic system to verify the legal status of an employee, is making positive gains with many employers, according to a survey.  E-Verify assists employers to determine the employee has legal status to work in the U.S.

The survey found:

E-Verify is easy to use and customers are overwhelmingly positive when describing their experience with the program. 

Almost all E-Verify employers believe that E-Verify is effective (92 percent) and perceive it to be highly accurate (89 percent).

Overall, 97 percent of E-Verify employers agree that the system is user friendly. 

Almost all E-Verify employers agree that the mandatory tutorial adequately prepared them to use E-Verify (93 percent). 

Almost all E-Verify employers (97 percent) reported using the program for all new hires.

E-Verify

E-Verify is not a program undocumented workers like much, because the program provides rapid verification of worker status.  Some employers also oppose the service because they want a source of cheap labor and they want to avoid federal employment taxes.  

Substantial work is done by undocumented people.  This includes on farms and ranches, in construction, landscaping and other low paying jobs.  Some work is done in the technical field to make computers and dot.com companies able to offer inexpensive Internet and technical services.  There is also a large demand for unskilled workers in the health care industry, which helps reduce the costs of citizen health care.

The United Farm Workers Union put out a national invitation on a national talk show in which undocumented immigrants offered to give up their jobs in the fields for any citizen who is willing to do the hard work.  Four people applied for the program, at least one being a celebrity trying to make hay out of the event.  The only serious candidate quit before the first day was over, because the working conditions were to harsh for him.

E-Verify is probably a good idea even for undocumented people.  With comprehensive immigration reform, undocumented workers could come onto the radar and employers would be forced to pay reasonable wages and collect and pay employment taxes.  Consumers benefit as well because some ranchers are unable to obtain necessary workers and their produce rots in the ground, driving up the costs of fruits and vegetables to the consumer.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform was passed in the United States Senate, thanks to effort on the part of Senator Bennet from Colorado.  Bennet forged a hard hitting immigration bill that would have helped roughly 60% of the immigrants in the country.  Bennet was able to enlist the cooperation of conservative Republicans and together they worked out a deal that secures the border and keeps families united.  The program left out people who need to be identified the most, people with criminal records.  

From both a liberal and conservative approach, giving immigrants with criminal records one last chance in exchange for registration protects the nation by registering all people within America's borders, and allows people who traditionally have limited access to legal protection one last chance to get it right.

However, in the U.S. House of Representatives, the House leadership, under John Boehnner, is saying no to all immigrants.  Republicans hope the lobby supporting immigration reform will rebel against Democratic leaders in the next election because reform has been stalled by Republicans in the House.  Republicans have not figured out that the primarily Latino voting base knows that Republicans are manipulating their family members for political gain.

The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, USCIS, is doing it's part to help secure the nation and to insure employers are treating workers fairly, and employers pay taxes through the E-Verify program.  The U.S. House of Representatives under conservative leadership has failed to do it's part and is playing politics with America's food and labor supply, with no regard for people who break their backs to insure produce arrives at the tables of citizens.

Reclassifying Employees As Independent Contractors Is Risky IRS

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not obtain the information it needs to ensure that employers are eligible for and comply with the Voluntary Classification Settlement Program (VCSP), according to a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

From startingyourbusinessovernight.com

The IRS estimates that employers misclassify millions of workers as independent contractors instead of employees. In September 2011, the IRS implemented the VCSP to allow employers to voluntarily reclassify workers as employees for Federal employment tax purposes. Employers that are accepted into the VCSP enter into a signed agreement with the IRS to treat workers as employees for future tax periods.

The overall objective of this review was to assess the IRS’s VCSP.

TIGTA found that the IRS does not require employers to provide information on the VCSP application that identifies the specific workers who are being reclassified, such as the workers’ names and Social Security Numbers. Without the specific worker identification information, the IRS cannot determine if the applicant met VCSP eligibility requirements.

In addition, the IRS is unable to verify the accuracy of the compensation amount reported on the application and, ultimately, the applicant’s computation of the VCSP payment amount owed. Without identifying information for the workers being reclassified, the IRS is also unable to establish an effective process to monitor VCSP agreements to ensure employer compliance.

Finally, the IRS’s processes to track and monitor program applications are ineffective and are not always accurate, and the follow-up review control logs do not always reflect accepted agreements.

TIGTA made five recommendations, including that the IRS: require employers applying for the VCSP to provide the names and Social Security Numbers for the workers being reclassified, revise internal procedures for processing VCSP applications to evaluate employer eligibility, and ensure that worker compensation and the VCSP payment is accurate; develop follow-up review processes to ensure compliance with the terms of agreements; develop reporting capabilities to allow for a single system for both tracking inventory and monitoring program performance; and revise processes to ensure that accepted agreements are successfully sent to and received by the IRS business units responsible for monitoring compliance.

“The classification of whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor has significant tax implications for the worker, the employer, and the IRS,” said J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. “The IRS must address this important issue.”

IRS management agreed with the recommendations. The IRS plans to revise the VCSP application to instruct employers to provide worker identification information and to revise internal procedures to use this information to evaluate eligibility for the program and compliance with VCSP agreements. The IRS also plans to implement reporting capabilities for the Reporting Compliance Case Management System to allow for a single inventory system for inventory tracking and monitoring program performance. Finally, the IRS indicated that it has developed and implemented internal procedures to ensure that inventory is accurately input and agreements are transferred to the appropriate business units for compliance monitoring.




Read the report.

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September 24, 2014

TIGTA - 2014-22

Contact: David Barnes

(202) 622-3062

David.barnes@tigta.treas.gov

TIGTACommunications@tigta.treas.gov


TIGTA: Better Worker Identification Data Are Needed For the Voluntary Classification Settlement Program


Note: The difference between the date TIGTA issues an audit report to the Internal Revenue Service and the date TIGTA publicly releases the report is due to TIGTA's internal review process to ensure that public release is in compliance with Federal confidentiality laws.