Mexicans legally and illegally in the United States send home over $24 billion a year, a ripe tax target to build President Trump’s wall.
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Trump during the campaign suggested banning the payments and using them to build the wall in a “one-time payment” of some $10 billion. Others have suggested he would tax the payments. Even at the lowest 10 percent IRS tax rate, enough could be generated in Trump’s first term to complete the partially-built wall, or about $10 billion.
During the election, Trump suggested taxing so-called “remittances” to Mexico from Mexicans. The country’s president recently said that it received $24 billion over just 11 months from those in the United States, according to a new post by the Center for Immigration Studies.
In his upcoming meeting with Trump, Mexican President Peña Nieto plans press for continued cash shipment to an estimated 1.29 million homes in Mexico.
The stunning figure hides another issue in Mexico, blogged Kausha Luna of CIS, and that is that many poor Mexicans rely on the money and it has created a type of welfare where those getting the money have stopped working.
She wrote:
“According to data from the Bank of Mexico (the country’s central bank), four of the top ten receiving municipalities (Puebla, Morelia, Leon, and San Luis Potosi) are located in states with the highest dependence on remittances, as a percent of their GDP. Moreover…the flow of remittances leads many to stop working and then they sustain themselves with the money coming from the United States.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
