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Elizabeth Warren

Warren and 10 Senate Democrats Urge IRS to Drop Proposed Immigration Question on 2026 Form 1040

Elizabeth Warren and 10 Senate Democrats asked the IRS to drop a proposed citizenship and work-authorization checkbox from the final 2026 Form 1040. Their letter argues it is unnecessary and could discourage filing, but the IRS’s decision is not established in the official releases.

By TheFinanceBase Team 3 min read
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren and 10 other Democratic senators have asked the IRS to remove a proposed citizenship and work-authorization checkbox from the final 2026 Form 1040. Their October 2, 2026 letter argues that the question serves no legitimate tax-administration purpose and could discourage people from filing. It is a request to the IRS—not a final agency decision—and the available official releases do not establish whether the question will appear on the completed form.

What the senators asked the IRS to do

Warren joined Sens. Ben Ray Luján, Ron Wyden and eight other colleagues in writing to IRS CEO Frank Bisignano about a proposed citizenship and work-authorization question for the final 2026 Form 1040. The signers asked the IRS to remove it. Their letter, dated October 2, requests a response by October 22, 2026. Luján’s official release reproduces the letter; Warren’s release describes the proposal as newly proposed for the final 2026 form.

The materials establish the senators’ request, not the IRS’s decision. They do not show that the checkbox was adopted in a finalized Form 1040, or provide an IRS rationale or response.

Why the senators oppose the proposed checkbox

The senators say the question is unnecessary because, in their account, nonresidents already file Form 1040-NR and the IRS checks work authorization against Social Security Administration data. They argue that an immigration-related question on Form 1040 could make taxpayers less willing to file and undermine voluntary compliance. Those are the signers’ claims and predictions, not established findings about how the proposal would affect filing.

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The letter also alleges that the IRS provided private data from more than 42,000 taxpayers to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and cites that episode as a reason public trust is low. That allegation is presented in the senators’ letter; the official releases do not independently establish the underlying disclosure.

The senators summarized their objection this way: “Adding this question for the first time in history appears to serve no legitimate tax administration purpose and risks increasing the tax gap by hundreds of billions of dollars,” wrote the senators.

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What the letter says about tax revenue and the tax gap

To support their warning about possible effects on revenue, the senators cite figures from other sources. The numbers below are the figures as described in their October 2026 letter, not independently verified estimates in the official releases.

Figure cited What the letter says it represents Attribution and qualification
$313 billion over 10 years Potential federal cost of the proposed approach Yale Budget Lab estimate as cited by the senators in 2026; the underlying analysis was not separately reviewed in the official releases.
$66 billion annually Taxes paid by unauthorized workers that the senators say could be jeopardized Figure cited in the senators’ 2026 letter; the releases do not independently verify it.
Nearly $700 billion per year Tax-year 2022 tax gap The senators describe this as the IRS’s October 2024 estimate; the underlying IRS report was not separately reviewed in the releases.

The senators also want an overdue tax-gap report

The letter says the IRS’s next tax-gap report, intended to cover tax year 2023, had been expected in fall 2025 and was nearly a year late when the senators wrote in October 2026. They asked the IRS to release the report by October 22, 2026. This account of the schedule and delay comes from the letter; the official releases do not independently verify the chronology.

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The senators also ask whether the next report will cover tax year 2023 or 2024 and whether it will address pass-through businesses, corporations, offshore tax avoidance and digital assets. Those are questions posed to the IRS, not confirmation of what a forthcoming report will include.

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What happens next

The requested response date is October 22, 2026. The releases available for this article do not include a subsequent IRS response or a finalized 2026 Form 1040, so the outcome of the senators’ request remains unestablished here. Until the IRS publishes its final form or responds, the checkbox should be described as proposed rather than as a requirement for taxpayers.

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