If I'm born into the U.S, is there any way for me to live without paying taxes, and without a social security card, etc?

1. Born in the U.S.: access to a Social Security number is the norm

U.S.-born persons are eligible to apply for and receive Social Security numbers from the Social Security Administration, and SSA materials describe procedures and eligibility for noncitizens as a contrast that implicitly affirms citizens’ access to SSNs ^[1].

2. There is no special carve‑out in the reporting that lets U.S.-born people opt out of the tax system

Across the sources, the emphasis is that people living and earning in the United States—whether citizens, lawful noncitizens, or undocumented immigrants—face tax obligations, and the literature repeatedly documents mechanisms to ensure tax compliance even for those without SSNs ^{[2] [4]}.

3. If someone lacked a Social Security number, the IRS provides an alternative for tax reporting (ITIN)

For people who cannot obtain an SSN, the IRS issues an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) specifically to allow federal tax filing and collection; multiple sources explain the ITIN’s purpose, limits, and prevalence, including IRS and advocacy summaries showing millions of tax returns using ITINs and billions in associated tax payments ^{[5] [6] [4]}.

4. Practical effect: lacking an SSN does not shield a person from paying many taxes

Reporting on undocumented immigrants makes clear that not having a valid SSN does not exempt someone from income, payroll, or state and local taxes; undocumented workers often pay payroll taxes, sales taxes, and other levies, sometimes with ITINs or, in some cases, false or borrowed SSNs that still result in taxes being withheld ^{[7] [6] [3]}.

5. Tradeoffs and limitations of staying outside the Social Security/benefits system

The materials show a strong asymmetry: people without valid SSNs who nevertheless pay Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes—whether through payroll withholding or use of other numbers—are often ineligible to receive those benefits unless they later obtain lawful status, and commentators stress that ITINs do not grant work authorization or entitlement to Social Security benefits ^{[8] [6] [3]}.

6. Enforcement, data sharing, and political context that shape choices

Legal-aid reporting warns that tax filings and ITIN applications can intersect with immigration enforcement because of agency data-sharing arrangements, a factor that shapes why some people choose informal work or other strategies even while other parts of the policy literature stress government efforts to collect taxes broadly ^{[9] [4]}.

7. What the reporting cannot authoritatively say about a U.S.-born person trying to live entirely outside the tax/SSN system

The assembled sources focus overwhelmingly on noncitizens and the IRS’s mechanisms (ITINs) rather than on a detailed legal playbook for a person born in the U.S. seeking to avoid taxes and an SSN; the federal materials implicitly place U.S.-born people squarely within existing systems (SSN access and tax obligations), but the reporting here does not enumerate narrow avoidance strategies or their legal consequences, so definitive claims about every possible pathway are beyond this dataset ^{[1] [2]}.

8. Bottom line from the sources: eligibility for an SSN is routine for U.S.-born people, and lack of an SSN does not eliminate tax obligations

Taken together, these sources show that the government expects taxes to be paid by residents and has systems (SSNs for citizens, ITINs for those without SSNs) to record and collect taxes; they also document that paying taxes without an SSN does not confer access to Social Security benefits and that data-sharing and enforcement concerns complicate attempts to remain entirely outside those systems ^{[1] [6] [9] [8]}.