Trump Flirts With the Ultimate Tax Cut: No Income Taxes at All
By: Andrew Duehren (nytimes)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The former president has repeatedly praised a period in American history when there was no income tax, and the country relied on tariffs to fund the government.
Former President Donald Trump has floated the idea of replacing federal revenue from income taxes with money received from tariffs, but he has not provided specific details of how that would work.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
By Andrew Duehren
Reporting from Washington
Oct. 24, 2024Updated 2:10 p.m. ET
Former President Donald J. Trump has spent much of the presidential campaign brainstorming new, and sometimes untested, ways to cut taxes. In the election's final stretch, he raised the possibility of going even further: eliminating income taxes entirely.
During a Fox News segment on Monday, Mr. Trump took questions at a barbershop in the Bronx. When asked if the United States could potentially end all federal taxation, Mr. Trump said the country could return to the economic policies in the late 19th century, when there was no federal income tax.
"It had all tariffs — it didn't have an income tax," Mr. Trump said. "Now we have income taxes, and we have people that are dying. They're paying tax, and they don't have the money to pay the tax."
In June, Mr. Trump floated the idea of replacing federal revenue from income taxes with money received from tariffs. Mr. Trump has not provided specific details of how that would work, and it is unclear if he wants to eliminate all federal taxes, including corporate income taxes and payroll taxes, or only end the individual income tax.
Either way, both liberal and conservative experts have dismissed his idea as mathematically impossible and economically destructive. Even if Republicans control Congress, lawmakers are unlikely to dismantle the income tax system. Yet Mr. Trump's combination of tax cuts and tariff increases has been central to his political pitch.
"There is a way, if what I'm planning comes out," Mr. Trump said of ending income taxes.
Replacing income taxes with tariffs would reverse the progressivity of the tax system in the United States. In general, income taxes are progressive, meaning that Americans with more income pay a higher tax rate. Tariffs, which impose a tax on products imported into the United States, are regressive. They raise the prices on imported items like clothing and groceries, placing a larger burden on lower-income Americans who spend a bigger percentage of their income on those goods.
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This sounds quite counter productive to populist aspirations, but Trump will dangle "no taxes" in front of the populace (with 10 days left in the campaign) with no shame.
At least his idea includes all. Cackles is floating the idea of forgivable loans only to black men.
Well damn, a candidate in a very tight race who makes all sorts of promises that everyone really should know can't or won't happen. But do go back and find a candidate for President who ever made campaign promises and felt shame from it. You know you cannot find one.
Any tax cut requires Congress to pass it, the President can't do it alone. Just more campaign promises.
So you are fine then with any unattainable proposals Harris makes.
George Bush, "Read my lips, no new taxes". His shame was being at Bill Clinton's Inauguration.
Every time I see him doing a sitting interview or barbershop town hall, I have to check my own posture.
Seems like a far better thing to have done in your first four years than to pretend to be able to do in your second four years.
People die every day.
WTF does that mean? They are either paying or they aren't, and no one dies from unpaid taxes.
As you probably know I'm not one to defend the moron or explain what he's saying - but I think he's saying that people are not literally dying from paying taxes but figuratively I guess it's 'killing their wallets or purses' - along those lines.
It is well-recognized that ending the progressive income tax and imposing a revenue system based strictly on sales taxes/tariffs will wreak havoc on the middle and working class. It's an oligarch's dream.
Ridiculous. I feel that way about a flat tax also.