Trump vows to eliminate taxes on overtime — a potential winner among some of 'the hardest-working citizens'

President Donald Trump vowed at his rally in Tuscon, Arizona, Thursday that he would eliminate all taxes on overtime pay — an unprecedented proposal from the federal government. This is part of a broader raft of proposed tax cuts, one of which is apparently so popular as to drive Kamala Harris to adopt it as her own.

"We will end all taxes on overtime," said Trump. "You know what that means? Think about it."

Trump suggested not only that Americans would have a greater incentive to work more if they knew the government wasn't skimming off the top but that businesses would have a easier time with recruitment and retention.

'It's time for the working man and woman to finally catch a break.'

"The people who work overtime are among the hardest-working citizens in our country. And for too long, no one in Washington has been looking out for them," continued Trump. "They're police officers, nurses, factory workers, construction workers, truck drivers, and machine operators. It's time for the working man and woman to finally catch a break."

The Labor Department under Trump issued a rule in 2019 making overtime pay available to an additional 1.3 million workers. It did so by raising the salary level that companies would have to pay in order to avoid paying workers at least 1.5 times their regular pay rate for work in excess of 40 hours a week.

Even though millions of Americans benefited, supposed labor activists, Democrats, and the liberal media criticized Trump's salary-level increase, suggesting it was not as generous as one of President Barack Obama's failed schemes.

Piggybacking on the success of Trump's rule, the Biden administration announced a final rule in April further increasing the salary threshold required to exempt workers from federal overtime pay requirements — from $36,568 to $43,888 by July 1, 2024, and to $58,656 by Jan. 1, 2025.

As a result of the 2019 and 2024 threshold increases, a great many Americans would be able to avoid forking over their hard-won overtime earnings to the government under Trump's proposed tax policy.

Reuters noted that while this proposal is a first from the federal government, Alabama paved the way this year, becoming the first state in the union to exclude overtime wages for hourly workers from state taxes. The move is, however, temporary.

According to the Tax Foundation, which has been tracking proposed tax policies on the campaign trail, Trump has said he would also:

• exempt tips from income taxes;
• lower the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 20% and lower the corporate income tax rate to 15% for companies that make their products in the United States;
• make permanent his 2017 individual income tax cuts, which are now nearing expiration;
• consider swapping out personal income taxes for increased tariffs on imports;
• exempt Social Security benefits from income tax; and
• impose a 60% tariff on imports from China.

It appears the Harris campaign did not take Trump's announcement well.

A Harris campaign spokesman said, "He is desperate and scrambling and saying whatever it takes to try to trick people into voting for him."

It is unclear whether Harris, who was recently exposed copying and pasting policies from her former running mate, will also claim this proposal for her own.

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