By Sen. Ben Ray Luján
WASHINGTON D.C. — U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., a member of the Senate Finance Committee, and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member, led nine colleagues in calling on Frank Bisignano, Chief Executive Officer of the Internal Revenue Service, to drop the newly proposed citizenship and work authorization checkbox from the final version of the 2026 Form 1040.
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.
“Turning the 1040 into an immigration tracker actively sabotages voluntary tax compliance and undermines the IRS’s core tax collection responsibilities,” the senators wrote in the Oct. 2 letter. “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. Putting this question on the front page of the Form 1040 will only discourage people from filing altogether.”
In addition to Senators Luján and Wyden, the letter was signed by U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Peter Welch, D-Vt., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Patty Murray, D-Wash., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
