Taxes on Tips

Donald Trump has long promised to end taxation on tips. The IRS considers all tips taxable income and requires workers to report anything over $20. Kamala Harris’ policies still remain vague but she recently flipped her stance and declared that she too would cease taxing tips. So why is her current administration hunting down the service industry?

Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act that was initially supposed to include $80 billion in funding to hire a slew of IRS agents. The Service Industry Tip Compliance Agreement (SITCA) program received a proposal from the IRS in 2023 that outlined a “voluntary tip reporting program between the IRS and employers in various service industries” that would monitor tip revenue and tip data directly from an employer’s point-of-sale system to see exactly how much customers were allegedly tipping.

These are the same people who told us that anyone earning under $400,000 would be safe from tax hikes.  The IRS hates cash and believes they are not receiving their fair share of every penny a US citizen earns. Asking employers to “voluntarily” hand over their personal data from POS systems would have punished every member of the service industry who relies on tips more so than employer wages.

Kamala Harris is currently in the White House. She has the ability to pass legislation NOW but is using elusive promises to attract voters. We cannot trust politicians and must look at their actions. Harris has flipped her position on numerous occasions on major topics from fracking to gun rights. We know that she and Walz want to support social programs that come with hefty price tags. She explained the Inflation Reduction Act as something “we,” as in the government, paid for and does not understand economics in the slightest. These people also decimated the service industry for nearly two years with asinine COVID restrictions. The Harris-Walz duo is the option for people who want higher taxes. I seriously doubt her ability to keep any campaign promise that involves lowering taxes.