Conservatives are slamming Vice President Kamala Harris for, as they see it, “stealing” ex-President Trump’s promise that he wouldn’t levy taxes on tips of service industry employees.
The backlash comes after the Biden-Harris administration unveiled a plan that would raise taxes on waitstaff tips.
“Now is a good time to remind everyone that #CopyCatKamala’s administration rolled out a new enforcement program JUST LAST YEAR to collect more taxes on tips! She could stop it now… but she won’t, because she’s a dishonest fraud!” Trump campaign political director James Blair posted to X.
The spokeswoman, Symone Sanders, declined to comment further on the exchange between Harris and Blair. It was only a day after Harris showed her support for tip taxes during a trip through Las Vegas Saturday at one rally that Bush criticized.
”It is my promise to everyone here when I am president we will continue to fight for working families, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers,” Harris said at the rally.
This summer, Trump had also vowed to do away with taxes on service industry tips — worked into a 2024 GOP platform proposal for his second term.
“This is the first time I’ve said this and for those hotel workers and people that get tips, you’re going to be very happy, because when I get to office we are going to not charge taxes on tips, people making tips… It’s been a point of contention for years and years and years, and 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 back in June during a rally in Las Vegas.
The move to align Harris with Trump on ending the tip tax came after last year’s rollout by the Biden administration of a voluntary system meant to simplify tax compliance for service industry workers who receive tips.
“The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service today issued Notice 2023-13, which contains a proposed revenue procedure that would establish the Service Industry Tip Compliance Agreement (SITCA) program, a voluntary tip reporting program between the IRS and employers in various service industries,” the IRS announced last year.
The move faced backlash from tax experts who saw it as a “waitresses’ tips crackdown,” particularly after 87,000 new IRS agents were hired by the Biden administration.
“Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem,” Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., the chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Tax, told Fox News Digital at the time. “Now, the IRS is going after middle-income families and working moms and dads who are just trying to make ends meet and put food on the table.”
“My colleagues and I have warned for months that the IRS would start targeting hardworking Americans in the Biden administration’s quest for more taxpayer dollars. Now, we’re starting to see some of these concerns come to fruition,” he added.
Trump said on Twitter the following day that Harris was plagiarizing his idea by endorsing abolishing tip taxes, calling her a “copycat.”
”Kamala Harris, whose ‘Honeymoon’ period is ENDING, and is starting to get hammered in the Polls, just copied my NO TAXES ON TIPS Policy,” Trump wrote.
Harris also faced criticism on social media from others who accused her of “copying” Trump. Over the weekend,”#CopyCatKamala” began trending on X as users slammed the vice president for copying Trump.