Trump says he’ll eliminate income taxes. There’s a problem with that

President Donald Trump on Sunday night reiterated an extraordinary ambition he and members of his administration have voiced from time to time throughout his young second term: One day, Americans won’t pay any more income tax, and you’ll have Trump’s tariffs to thank for it.

President Donald Trump on Sunday night reiterated an extraordinary ambition he and members of his administration have voiced from time to time throughout his young second term: One day, Americans won’t pay any more income tax, and you’ll have Trump’s tariffs to thank for it. “We’re going to make a lot of money, and we’re going to cut taxes for the people of this country,” Trump said before boarding Air Force One for his return from Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome. “It’ll take a little while before we do that, but we’re going to be cutting taxes, and it’s possible we’ll do a complete tax cut, because I think the tariffs will be enough to cut all of the income tax.” No one likes paying income taxes. But any plan to replace them with tariffs as a source of government revenue would be riddled with problems. To start, tariffs would need to be exceedingly high — significantly higher than the already historic levels at which the Trump administration has set them today. The federal government raises about $3 trillion a year from income taxes. The United States also happens to import around $3 trillion worth of goods annually. So that means tariffs would have to be at least 100% on all imported goods for the levies to replace income taxes, said Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, in a note to investors. The United States’ effective tariff rate now stands at 22.8%, according to Fitch Ratings. So to take the place of income taxes, tariffs would need to be more than four times higher than they are now — and America’s new tariff rate is already by far the highest of any developed country and has threatened to plunge the US and global economies into a recession.