Trump says he will create new agency to collect revenue from foreign sources By Reuters

By Ryan Patrick Jones and David Lowder

(Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would create a new government agency called the Foreign Revenue Service to collect “duties, duties and all revenue” from foreign sources, as he prepares to impose new import tariffs from his next inauguration. ahead. week

Trump said in a social media post that he would create the agency on Jan. 20, the day he takes office for a second term, adding that Americans have been taxed by the Internal Revenue Service for too long.

“Through soft and pathetically weak Trade Agreements, the American economy has provided growth and prosperity to the world while taxing ourselves. It’s time for that to change,” the Republican said in a Truth Social post.

“We’re going to start charging those who make money off of us by trade, and they’re going to start paying their fair share, after all.”

A spokesman for Trump’s transition team could not immediately be reached for comment to clarify Trump’s announcement or explain how the new agency would work.

Trump did not specify whether the new agency would replace the collection of tariffs, duties, taxes and fines by U.S. Customs and Border Protection or the collection of foreign corporate and individual income taxes by the IRS.

It was also unclear whether the move would create additional government bureaucracy, which appears to be at odds with plans for Trump’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, an effort led by billionaire Elon Musk and former biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy to find trillions of dollars in the budget. savings by streamlining government operations.

During his presidential campaign, Trump often talked about replacing the U.S. income tax with tariffs, but the numbers don’t add up, according to private economists and forecasters.

The conservative-leaning Tax Foundation estimates that a 20% blanket tariff on all U.S. imports would cost $4.5 trillion over 10 years, before the negative economic effects would reduce net collections to $3.3 trillion over a decade is with IRS gross tax collections of $4.69 trillion in fiscal year 2023 alone.

Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, criticized Trump’s proposal.

“No amount of silly rebranding will hide the fact that Trump plans to raise taxes on American families and small businesses by several trillion dollars to pay another round of tax cuts to the rich,” Wyden said.

Trump has proposed a 10% tariff on global imports, a 25% punitive tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico until they curb drugs and migrants crossing the US border, and a 60% tariff on Chinese goods.

Trade experts say the tariffs would disrupt trade flows, raise costs and retaliate against US exports.

(This story has been corrected to put the IRS tax collection figure at “$4.69 trillion in fiscal year 2023 alone,” not “$16 trillion to $18 trillion annually,” in paragraph 9)