Never Paid Income Taxes

[TheGreatRaymond]

Lived in US for almost 10 years. Have applied for citizenship. Have never paid income taxes. Will this be a problem?

[acpdelhi]

Yes it will. Consult an immigration lawyer.

[ckayhan]

You will be denied. One of the requirements is that you must have filed your taxes continuosly. Talk to a lawyer, and most probably get ready for paying back taxes for the years you have not filed. Not a good thing, by the way.

[knowledgeable]

Something's amiss

There's something that the original thread/post creator has not mentioned.

The person has surely not arrived in the U.S. on H1B, else his taxes will be deducted at source from his salary, so there's no way he would've not paid any taxes.

He may not have filed an IT return, but surely paid taxes, if he was originally on H1B.

Now, if the person has come to the U.S. on a GC filed through family, then there may be a situation where he has not worked "officially" and has probably worked in "cash" always and never bothered to show his income or pay taxes. I've known quite some people in this status to do so.

Hence, in this case, not paying taxes should not hurt the U.S. Citizenship application at all. He can show that he has never worked and hence not paid any taxes.

Alternatively, his income may always have been below the minimum tax level and hence he did not pay taxes.

The problem in such cases, with these posts is, it's difficult to see whether someone just kidding around and trying to make a fool out of everybody.

No offense, it just appears so.

Good luck if this is an honest post and you're indeed looking for information. Please do provide full details in future.

[ckayhan]

I do not agree with the argument that if you do not make money, you should not file taxes. The law says even if you have no income, or just income over seas, you still have to file a from with the IRS. And anyone not having income would be either a dependant on somebody else's tax papers (which would mean he has filed), or would need money to survive either through the government or people around him, which are NOT tax immune by the way. In the end even if the income was below the levels where one might not owe any taxes, that decision is in the hands of IRS and taxes must be filed. If the owner of the post is sincere, the situation is quite grave.