Trump has also pushed for other tax cuts – including eliminating the federal tax on tips, which was the focus of his event Friday at a Mexican-Italian restaurant in Las Vegas. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that such an exemption would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion over 10 years.
“We’re going to give you 100 percent of your income and you’re not going to be bullied,” Trump said, calling his promise the “biggest promise” restaurant workers have “gotten in a long time.”
He attacked Harris for also supporting the tip tax proposal, claiming she was merely repeating his policies for political reasons and not implementing them.
At a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday, Trump reiterated his view that Harris would not achieve that goal. “It will never happen with her; it will definitely happen with me: no tax on tips,” he said.
The bipartisan acceptance of this idea comes at a time when both campaigns are seeking to appeal to key voting blocs in Nevada and other swing states.
Trump’s comments come a day after Harris formally accepted her party’s presidential nomination, setting up a sprint to Election Day for the two candidates. Harris used her acceptance speech to highlight some of her policy proposals in broad strokes, saying she would stand up for the middle class and take action to lower costs for households.
Trump has made “no tax on tips” a central theme of his campaign speech, and his campaign is using guerrilla marketing tactics to promote the policy. Donors to his campaign can get stickers that read “VOTE TRUMP FOR NO TIPS TAX” to put on their restaurant bills.
Harris also chose Las Vegas to make a similar campaign promise to cut the tip tax – although her proposal would only apply to federal income tax and leave payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare unchanged.
02:11
In his first speech after the assassination, Trump announces high tariffs on cars made in China
In his first speech after the assassination, Trump announces high tariffs on cars made in China
Natalie DeNardo, a mortgage broker who attended the event Friday, said her father is a bartender at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas and would feel the “huge impact” of the proposed tax exemption on tips. When asked whether Harris would support such a policy, she expressed skepticism.
“She’s just jumping on the bandwagon,” said DeNardo, 41. “She could have done this in the last three and a half years if she really wanted to.”
Exempting tips from federal taxes could reduce the tax burden on the more than six million hospitality workers who received a total of $38.3 billion in tips in 2018, the most recent year for which IRS data is available. That works out to an average of about $6,250 per tipped worker.
Despite their agreement on the so-called zero tax on tips, Trump is pushing for sweeping tax cuts for corporations and high earners, while Harris is taking the lead from President Joe Biden and championing proposals to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and tax increases on the wealthy while promising not to raise taxes on incomes under $400,000.
