As Election Day approaches, former President Donald Trump told voters that he believes he could pave the way for the elimination of federal income taxes.
On Monday, Trump participated in a town hall segment with Fox News at a barbershop in the Bronx, where he answered questions from the business’ owner, employees, and patrons.
‘There is a way if what I’m planning comes out.’
One individual told Trump that his biggest concern is that his two children and future generations will not be able to obtain the American dream because of oppressive over-taxation.
“When it comes to federal taxes, I’m sure you’re going to start back up the pipeline, the Keystone Pipeline, which is going to generate an abundance of revenue. Also, with the tariffs that you’ve spoken of,” he told Trump.
He asked, “With all this extra revenue that we’re going to be bringing into the country, do you believe that at some point in time, we could find a way — once the country’s back on its feet and getting enough revenue and pays off our debt — do you think it’s possible to find a way to eliminate federal taxes?”
Trump replied emphatically, “There is a way.”
He stated that in the 1890s, the United States relied on tariffs and did not have a federal income tax.
“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,” Trump continued. “In the old days, 1890, 1880, we had so much money they had to set up committees, blue-ribbon committees, how to spend our wealth. We had no idea how to spend it; it was so much money. Then we went to the income tax system, and the rest is sort of history.”
“No, there is a way if what I’m planning comes out,” Trump added.
The former president has already stated that he supports abolishing the federal income tax on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security.
The United States, for the first time, briefly imposed a 3%-5 income tax from 1862 to 1872 to cover the cost of the Civil War.
W. Elliot Brownlee, a historian of tax policy at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told the New York Times that the U.S. adopted “a mass-based income tax for the first time during World War II.”
From 1868 to 1913, approximately 90% of all revenue was generated from liquor, beer, wine, and tobacco taxes. Currently, income taxes generate 94% of the federal government’s revenue, while tariffs make up just 2%.
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