The Trump administration has proposed requiring U.S. taxpayers to disclose their citizenship and work-authorization status on the IRS’s draft 2026 Form 1040, a change Treasury says could help prevent ineligible people from collecting refundable tax credits and save up to $2 billion, Fox News reported Oct. 2, 2026.
Fox News reported the draft 1040 posted in late August includes the question: “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.?” The form shows “Yes” and “No” checkboxes for both the filer and a spouse, and a draft of Schedule 3-A, used to claim refundable tax credits, contains a similar question, Fox News said.
Under the proposal, Fox News reported, each filer would have to certify immigration or citizenship status to the IRS under penalty of law to file a return. A Treasury official told Fox News the information would be “subject to a variety of privacy, disclosure and other legal protections,” without saying whether the IRS would share the information with immigration enforcement.
Fox News said the administration argues the change would limit improper claims for refundable credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Additional Child Tax Credit. The report said the administration cited an estimated taxpayer savings of up to $2 billion.
The Fox News story cited IRS and other data showing that in 2024 the National Taxpayer Advocate found 3.8 million tax returns filed using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). According to the report, those returns accounted for $14.4 billion in income taxes and $6.5 billion in Social Security and Medicare taxes.
Fox News reported the proposal would apply standards from the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act to certain refundable tax credits, which the outlet said could make some groups currently receiving some credits ineligible — including people covered by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, those with temporary protected status and certain temporary workers such as H-1B visa holders.
The report cited a research paper that estimated 671,000 people, including 309,000 children, would lose the EITC under the proposal, and another 1.1 million people, including 574,000 children, would lose the Additional Child Tax Credit. Fox News said the researchers were affiliated with Boston University, Columbia University and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, and that most of the children who would lose eligibility are U.S. citizens based on a parent’s status.
Fox News reported critics say the measure would add a new checkbox that could expose taxpayers to immigration enforcement or push some people to stop filing returns. The outlet quoted David Bier of the Cato Institute and Nina Olson of the Center for Taxpayer Rights raising such concerns and attributed their remarks as reported to The Associated Press within the story.
Fox News also reported that a federal court blocked a prior Treasury agreement to share confidential taxpayer information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and that the IRS had already provided ICE with addresses for 47,000 people before that agreement was stopped.
Fox News is the source for the reporting in this article.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
