Filipino-Americans alarmed by Trump’s remittance tax, lament ‘state extortion’
Filipino-American community leaders warn of long-term effects of Trump’s latest actions, including on remittances back home, state-funded health insurance
Under the new law, green card holders and migrant workers will be charged a 3.5 per cent levy on overseas money transfers starting on January 1 – a move that analysts warn will carry far-reaching consequences in both countries.
“For decades, Filipinos in the US have often been in the top five countries for remittances … the fact that those [remittances] will be taxed now is going to have an impact on how much they receive on their end and their livelihoods in the Philippines,” said James Zarsadiaz, director of the Yuchengco Philippine Studies Programme at the University of San Francisco.
“It’s not just the Filipinos living here, but their family and their friends and their communities that rely on those remittances,” Zarsadiaz told This Week in Asia.
Zarsadiaz said the new tax fit a broader pattern in US politics of making immigration economically untenable.