The Tax Form Becomes a Checkpoint: IRS Draft 1040 Would Make Every Filer Certify Citizenship or Work Authorization Under Penalty of Law

The Tax Form Becomes a Checkpoint: IRS Draft 1040 Would Make Every Filer Certify Citizenship or Work Authorization Under Penalty of Law

The Trump administration has proposed a change to the 1040 tax form that would require US taxpayers to disclose their citizenship and work-authorization status to the IRS — turning the universal tax return into a mandatory immigration attestation, per an AP report published Oct. 1, 2026.

The IRS posted its draft 1040 for 2026 in late August. It 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.?"

There are Yes/No checkboxes for both the filer and spouse, and a draft Schedule 3-A (refundable credits) asks a similar question. Per AP: "The questions are not optional. Every tax filer must certify under penalty of law their immigration or citizenship status to the IRS to file their return¹.²"

The Treasury Department says the question targets immigrants lacking permanent legal status who claim refundable credits (EITC, Additional Child Tax Credit), estimating savings up to $2 billion, and says the information will be "subject to a variety of privacy, disclosure and other legal protections" — but the statement did not say whether the information will be shared with immigration enforcement agencies. That silence is the crux:

"It could be used as an immigration enforcement tool and that is probably the reason why they are doing this³," said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute.

"It's dragging the IRS into this administration's immigration policies," said Nina Olson, executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights. "Your citizenship or residency status is not information the IRS needs to process a return. It's not even information the IRS needs to process these tax credits."

Tax experts note the IRS already verifies credit eligibility against SSA records — a valid SSN, not an ITIN, is required for the EITC — making the new question, in Olson's view, unnecessary. Undocumented filers face a trilemma: declare status (self-incriminating), lie on the return (a felony), or stop filing — despite ITIN filers paying $14.4B in income taxes and $6.5B in payroll taxes on ~3.8M returns (2024 National Taxpayer Advocate figures).

A research paper published this week (Boston University, Columbia, ITEP) estimates 671,000 people — including 309,000 children — would lose the EITC, and ~1.1 million people — including 574,000 children — would lose the Additional Child Tax Credit; most of those children are US citizens. People currently eligible who'd lose coverage include DACA recipients, TPS holders, and H-1B temporary workers.

Context and pattern: this is the citizenship-data consolidation reaching the tax system. Last year Treasury agreed to share confidential taxpayer data with ICE for deportation targeting; a federal judge halted that agreement for violating taxpayer-privacy laws — but not before the IRS had already turned over the addresses of 47,000 people to ICE. The draft 1040 sits alongside the other citizenship-verification fronts this topic tracks: the SAVE database (SAVE Voter-Citizenship Database: Opposition Briefed at SCOTUS as Ruling Looms), passport-records sharing for voter checks (The 'State Citizenship Lists' Head for a Ruling: Judge Xinis Fully Briefed in EPIC's Challenge — Decision Expected Before the Midterms), and DHS's 'Unlawful Voter Initiative' (DHS 'Unlawful Voter Initiative': Five Weeks Out, the Hunt Has Found Almost Nothing).