Epoch Times
November 28, 2025
By Aldgra Fredly
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**Trump Says U.S. Could Eliminate Income Taxes Using Tariff Revenues**
President Donald Trump stated on November 27 that the United States could potentially eliminate income taxes over the next several years thanks to the revenue generated from tariffs. Trump made these remarks during a Thanksgiving call with U.S. service members, explaining that tariffs imposed on foreign nations have not only generated substantial revenue but also encouraged companies to build manufacturing facilities in the United States to avoid tariff costs.
“We’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars like we’ve never done before. And some of that’s going to go back in a form of a sort of dividend to our people, but much of it’s going to go toward reducing debt,” he said. “Over the next couple of years, I think we‘ll substantially be cutting and maybe cutting out completely, but we’ll be cutting income tax, could be almost completely cutting it, because the money we’re taking in is going to be so large.”
Earlier, on April 27, Trump had posted on social media that Americans, especially those earning less than $200,000 annually, might see their income taxes reduced or “completely eliminated” once the tariffs on foreign imports were fully implemented.
Data from the Penn Wharton Budget Model, which utilizes Department of the Treasury information, shows that the United States collected more than $320 billion in customs and excise taxes as of November 2025, up from about $171 billion at the same time in 2024.
This surge in tariff revenues resulted from Trump’s trade policies, which established a 10 percent baseline levy on most imports and a series of reciprocal duties applied to trading partners, with some nations facing duties as high as 40 percent. The Tax Policy Center estimates that Trump’s 2025 tariff actions have increased the average U.S. tariff rate to 17.6 percent, with projected revenue totaling about $2.3 trillion from 2026 to 2035.
However, the group also estimates that these tariffs will add roughly $256 billion to federal receipts next year while increasing the average household’s costs by approximately $2,200. The Tax Policy Center cautions that these figures are “highly uncertain,” reflecting complex stacking rules and excluding the impact of foreign countermeasures or broader macroeconomic effects on the U.S. economy.
In a November 24 post on Truth Social, Trump expressed optimism that tariff revenues would continue to rise as global buyers exhaust their stockpiled imports, which they initially hoarded to avoid paying tariffs.
“Despite the massive amount of money being made by the United States of America, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, as a direct result of Tariffs being charged to other countries, the full benefit of the Tariffs has not yet been calculated in that many of the buyers of goods and products, to avoid paying the Tariffs in the short term, ‘STOCK UP’ by purchasing far more inventory than they can use,” Trump said.
“That heavy inventory purchase is now, however, wearing thin, and soon Tariffs will be paid on everything they apply to, without avoidance, and the amounts payable to the USA will SKYROCKET, over and above the already historic levels of dollars received. These payments will be RECORD SETTING, and put our Nation on a new and unprecedented course.”
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**Topics:** Business/Economy, Culture/Society, Government, News/Current Events
**Keywords:** income tax, tariffs, taxes
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