Immigrants pay taxes too
I have just now (July 7) managed to finish my June 24 issue,
and I must say that reader Brian McGarity seems to be naive or
misinformed. He says "Isn't allowing non-tax paying foreign
nationals to work..."(Italics mine). Why does he think non-Americans do not pay American taxes?
Everyone who works in this country knows that loads of taxes are automatically taken out of every paycheck. The biggest such tax is the Social Security tax. Nobody in the income bracket of most Militant readers gets out of that one. (But big shots, after they've made the first $62,000 or so per year, pay no more SS tax the rest of the year).
Most workers also have Federal income tax withheld from their pay, let alone state taxes, city or local taxes, and in some states (such as my state of Pennsylvania, and nearby New Jersey), unemployment taxes.
Even if a person failed to fill in a tax form (and pay a balance due the government, or get a refund), they still have plenty withheld for taxes. Mr. McGarity may not know it, but there is a special tax form for non-Americans who earn money from American sources. It's called Form 104 NR (for "non- resident"). It's roughly the same tax as U.S. citizens pay on the ubiquitous Form 1040, but somewhat higher.
Megan Arney devoted half a column in the same issue, to answering this man's letter, but she either did not address, or did not know, that non-Americans pay tax just like the rest of us. It may be a small point, but I'd like to set the record straight.
Amy Lowenstein
Yardley, Pennsylvania
Editors' note: We thank Lowenstein for her addition to Arney's reply. We would add a reminder that from the time of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels to today, the working-class position on taxes has been for a single, steeply graduated tax on income - with no taxes on workers, whatever country they were born in.
Justice for Irish workers
I am writing to your newspaper in the hope that you may further help me in my pursuit of justice in this country for the ordinary working-class person.
My circumstances came about on March 18 this year when three local police officers entered by home to answer an allegation made by my neighbor that I had damaged some small bushes in his front garden. The officers barged into my home and assaulted me. I had just come out of the bath and had a towel on me which fell off during the assault and their efforts to handcuff me while I demanded an explanation for their actions. This was done in full view of my two children, ages four and six. I was then taken naked and handcuffed down my driveway in full view of my neighbors and taken to Staines Police station where I was subjected to all sorts of abuse and refused water for approximately 10 hours while the heating was on full.
The only charge brought against me (which is fabricated) is criminal damage to garden property to the value of no more than 80. I go to trial on June 27.
A number of us Irish people have taken our cases to the streets in the form of pickets and so far we have picketed Downing St. and the Irish embassy on two occasions, April 23 and May 23. Our Embassy does absolutely nothing for Irish people in our situation. They won't answer phone calls and they refuse to answer recorded delivery mail. They will only cater for the business community. It's a scandal. The police, although obliged to do so by law, don't contact our Embassy when Irish people are arrested so there is no record of the injustice suffered by the Irish people and hence no data collection.
The Irish papers won't give us coverage of our pickets of the Irish embassy and so this great cover up goes on. The Irish World and the Irish Post are gagged by our Embassy but we are gathering in numbers as the scandal of our Embassy is slowly being exposed.
I have only recently become of age in the whole area of the suffering of people and as such have taken an interest in the suffering of all working-class people. And it is through this interest that I have become a reader of your paper. I see that you cover the suffering of all people and you include, along with articles, photographs of pickets the world over.
If you want any information about our future plans I would welcome a call on 01784 886 005, or you can contact our main organizer Mr. Patrick Cullinane on 0181 204 2386.
We are determined people and we will not stop till we get justice, firstly for ourselves and secondly for all Irish working-class people who are suffering at hands of this unjust administration.
John Deegan
Middlesex, England
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