In an appeal to voters in Nevada, former President Donald Trump promised rallygoers he wouldn’t “charge taxes on tips” for those who rely on them to make money.
However, Trump, as president, wouldn’t have the power to influence taxation on tipped income. Congress would have to change the laws regarding it, and the former president’s campaign told the Washington Examiner that he would ask it to do so.
“For those hotel workers and people that get tips, you’re going to be very happy,” Trump said during his Las Vegas rally. “Because when I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips.”
The former president’s campaign also blamed President Joe Biden for “aggressively” stepping “up the IRS going after tip workers.” The attack is likely in reference to a voluntary tip reporting program, the Service Industry Tip Compliance Agreement, or SITCA, in which service worker employers and the IRS collaborate.
“You do a great job of service. You take care of people. And I think it’s going to be something that really is deserved,” Trump said. “So those people that have jobs in restaurants, whatever the job may be, a tipping job, we’re not going after for taxes anymore.”
If elected to office again, Trump would have a chance to oversee congressional lawmakers rewriting tax policy when much of the former president’s tax package expires in 2025. If the GOP can maintain its majority in the House and flip the Senate, Trump could have a better chance at seeing service-tips-related legislation go through.
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Trump’s taxes-on-tipped-wages promise could appeal to Nevadan working-class voters in a state that has voted blue since Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. Some of those are Latino voters, whom Trump has been attempting to market himself to in this campaign.
The CookPoliticalReport rates Nevada as a “toss-up” state, and it would offer six electoral votes toward the winner as Trump and Biden’s rematch is coming down to a fierce battle for roughly seven states in November.