President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that upon his return to the White House, he would create the Bureau of Foreign Revenue, which would collect all foreign revenue, including tariffs.
“For too long, we have relied on using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to tax our greats. Through soft and pathetically weak trade agreements, the American economy has delivered growth and prosperity to the world. Yet they have taxed themselves,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Today I am announcing the creation of a foreign revenue service. [ERS] To collect our customs duties, duties, and all revenues derived from foreign sources. ”
The president-elect added that ERS will be established on January 20 to “start charging the companies that benefit from us in trade, and eventually they will start paying their fair share.”
President Trump, 78, has already threatened to raise tariffs on foreign countries that don't follow his hard-line immigration policies. The president-elect threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada by name, and also said he would stop “doing business” with countries that refuse to accept deported illegal immigrants.
Republicans also said they would impose tariffs of 10 to 20 percent on all foreign goods and up to 60 percent on imports from China.
Trump also pledged during his campaign to overturn the current tax system, pledging not to tax tips, overtime or Social Security, and even citing the tax revenue his tariff policies would theoretically generate. It also proposed the abolition of the federal income tax.
Customs collection currently falls under the authority of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Creating an independent ERS department would theoretically require support from Congress, but President Trump could also seek to establish it within another existing agency.
Trump ally Steve Bannon told Politico earlier Tuesday. They say an ERS should be established under the Treasury Department to reduce the burden on the IRS.
But Brian Reilly of the National Taxpayers Union pointed out that “the federal government collects duties from U.S. importers,” raising questions about how the proposed agency would work. Ta.
“It is not clear what the purpose of creating a new IRS would be because it does not collect customs revenue from foreign sources,” Riley told the Post.
“A higher priority would be to improve the operations of the Internal Revenue Service to better serve American taxpayers.”
The Trump team did not immediately respond to questions about the details of the new agency.
