Former President Trump has proposed doing away with taxes on overtime pay.
In a September 12 speech in Tucson, Arizona, the Republican presidential nominee said that, if elected, he would end taxes on “overtime hours” — that is, the hourly wages a worker earns after working more than 40 hours in a week.
“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,” Trump said. “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, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Trump said that ending taxes on overtime pay would encourage people to work more and would make it easier for companies to hire workers. He added that some “great” economists he spoke to agree.
“They said, ‘It would be unbelievable; you’ll get a whole new workforce by doing that,’” Trump claimed.
Trump already has proposed doing away with taxes on large swaths of income. For example, he previously proposed to repeal taxes on tipped income — a proposal that his opponent in the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, has also backed. He also called for seniors to be exempt from paying taxes on Social Security benefits.
In a speech in Greensboro, North Carolina, the same day, Harris emphasized some tax proposals of her own, including her plans to increase the deduction for start-ups from $5,000 to $50,000 and to boost the child tax credit to $6,000 during the first year of a child’s life.
“Under my plan, more than 100 million Americans will get a tax cut,” Harris said.