LARRY KUDLOW: 'Copycat Kamala' is plagiarizing Donald Trump's idea for tax-free tips

That’s right – Copycat Kamala. She is plagiarizing Donald Trump's idea for tax-free tips -- for waiters, maître d's, barbers, delivery people, Uber drivers and the whole gig economy. Mr. Trump unveiled his idea last June in Las Vegas. Kamala did it Saturday, also in Las Vegas.  

Who do you believe? Who do you trust? Here's a key point: If Kamala really was going to exempt taxes on tips, why, then, she would have already exempted the taxes on tips.  

If she was going to do it, then she would've already done it. After all, last February 6, 2023, the Treasury and the IRS issued something called notice 2023-13, which contained a proposed revenue procedure that would establish the Service Industry Tip Compliance Agreement – SITCA Program.  

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The lead bullet was: "the monitoring of employer compliance based on actual annual tip revenue and charge tip data from an employer's point of sale system." Blah, blah, blah.... You get the idea. Look, the IRS is inside the Treasury and the Treasury is part of the Biden-Harris executive branch presidency, so if she wanted to exempt tips, or even pull back on chasing waitresses or other self-employed workers, she could have pulled back and gotten rid of this noxious regulation. 

A little more than a year earlier, Ms. Harris cast the tie-breaking vote on the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act. That authorized $80 billion so the IRS could add 87,000 new agents. This was billed as ‘soak the rich’. In fact, however, down through the years, these programs are really ‘soak the waitress at your favorite diner’ or ‘soak your DoorDash delivery person who gets you your food.’

This story is why Kamala's so-called move to the center is nothing but bait-and-switch, phony baloney. I don't mean it to be personal, but I'm basing it on, shall we say, policy contradictions. It's really a lot like a ban on fracking… but, no, wait a second, she's not in favor of a ban on fracking, but if she weren't for the ban on fracking, then why, as Joe Biden's co-pilot for three and a half years, didn't she approve the XL Pipeline? Or fracking and drilling in Alaska's ANWR or the National Petroleum Reserve, or stall leasing for public lands, or totally miniscule leases in the Gulf of Mexico, or banning new LNG export terminals?

Because all of that is the Biden-Harris war on fossil fuels and their manic pursuit of climate change and EV mandates, which really amounts to something pretty close to a ban on fracking. Back to paying taxes on tips – tipped employees are required to pay both federal income taxes and payroll taxes on the tips they receive.  

The Heritage Foundation writes that "workers report tips to their bosses, who then pay the 15.3% payroll tax to the IRS on the employee's behalf, and then adjust worker-wage withholding to account for the tips." 

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That's quite a burden on your local messenger service and, of course, Kamala will tell you nobody under $400,000 will be affected by her $4-5 trillion tax hike, but then again, we can all scratch our heads to figure out how close your local Dunkin' Donuts delivery person is to that $400,000 threshold.  

Think he's below $400,000? Of course he is, Kamala. Stop fibbing to us. Bait-and-switch is not going to work, ma'am. You know, Trump cut taxes big time in his first term. He will again if re-elected, but you will not.  

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the August 12, 2024, edition of "Kudlow."