President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday he will create an external revenue office upon his return to the White House that will collect all foreign-sourced revenue, such as tariffs.
“For far too long, we have relied on taxing our Great People using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Through soft and pathetically weak Trade agreements, the American Economy has delivered growth and prosperity to the World, while taxing ourselves,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“I am today announcing that I will create the EXTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE [ERS] to collect our Tariffs, Duties, and all Revenue that come from Foreign sources.”
The incoming president added that the ERS would be established on Jan. 20 to “begin charging those that make money off of us with Trade, and they will start paying, FINALLY, their fair share.”
Trump, 78, has already threatened to raise tariffs on foreign countries that do not comply with his hard-line immigration policies. The president-elect has singled out Mexico and Canada with a threat of a 25% tariff, and has also said he will stop “business” with countries who refuse to take back illegal migrants who have been deported.
The Republican has also said he will levy a 10% to 20% tariff on all foreign goods and up to a 60% tariff on Chinese imports.
Trump also vowed on the campaign trail to upend the current tax structure, promising no taxes on tips, overtime or Social Security — even floating the elimination of federal income tax due to the revenue that his tariff policy would theoretically generate.
Tariff collection currently falls under the authority of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The creation of a separate ERS department will in theory need congressional support, though Trump could try to establish the department within a different existing agency.
Trump ally Steve Bannon told Politico earlier Tuesday that the ERS should be established under the Treasury Department to take the burden off the IRS.
But Bryan Riley from the National Taxpayers Union pointed out that the “federal government collects duties from US importers,” raising questions about how the proposed agency would even work.
“It does not collect duty revenue from foreign sources, so it is not clear what the point of a new External Revenue Service would be,” Riley told The Post.
“A better priority would be to improve the operation of the Internal Revenue Service to better serve US taxpayers.”
Alternatively, economist EJ Antoni of the Heritage Foundation told The Post that “I really, really love this idea.”
“Anything that gets us away from income taxes and towards tariffs is a great idea,” added Antoni, saying that the ERS will likely come about through the “transformation” of a current agency into one that “would better serve” the American people.
The Trump team did not immediately respond to questions about specifics of the new agency.
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