Vice President Kamala Harris, who Saturday copied a campaign promise first announced by former President Donald Trump to eliminate tip taxes, voted in 2022 to pass legislation that allowed the IRS to track workers' tips so they could be taxed.
On August 7, 2022, Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act that provided $80 billion in additional funding to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which then began working to crack down on service industry advice reports, so that they could be taxed.
“Two years ago today, I proudly cast the tie-breaking vote to pass our Inflation Reduction Act,” Harris' Facebook account reminded the public Wednesday, sharing a video of the vice president voting to pass the legislation.
Watch below:
Vice President Harris casts the tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act
Two years ago today, I proudly cast the tie-breaking vote to pass our Inflation Reduction Act. Here's what it means for the American people:☑️ Insulin capped at $35 a month for seniors☑️ The largest investment in climate action in history☑️ Over $1 billion in unpaid taxes raised from 1,600 millionaires so far☑️ Prescription drug costs for people with Medicare capped at $2,000 a year☑️ The creation of an estimated 1.5 million jobs over the next decade
Posted by Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, August 7, 2024
“On this vote, it's 50 yeas, 50 nays. The Senate is evenly divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative, and the bill passes as amended,” Harris said in the Aug. 7, 2022, video. .
President Joe Biden's White House too they boasted that the Inflation Reduction Act “provided $80 billion in additional funding to the IRS.”
In February 2023, the IRS published a proposed revenue procedure known as the Service Industry Tip Compliance Agreement (SITCA) program.
the agency described SITCA as “a voluntary tip reporting program between the IRS and employers in various service industries” that would include “monitoring of employer compliance based on actual annual tip revenue and tip data charge of the employer's point of sale system, and the provision of tipping practices from year to year.
“There's no reason why they should be giving guidance on how to crack down on this if it's just going to be voluntary,” said Mike Palicz of Americans for Tax Reform. he said Fox News at the time. “Ultimately, the goal is to go get as much revenue as possible and from whoever you can.”
“They told us they won't come after people make $400,000 or less,” Palicz added. “Well, here's a new IRS rule that focuses on tipping waitresses.”
Palicz also took to X to express his dismay, writing, “Those 87,000 new IRS agents they promised you would only target the rich… Now they're coming after the tips from the waitresses.”
Those 87,000 new IRS agents they promised you would only target the rich…
Now they come after the tips from the waitresses: “employer compliance monitoring based on actual annual tip revenue and charge tip data from the employer's point-of-sale system.”https://t.co/WAvh0t2cNN
— Mike Palicz (@Mike_Palicz) February 7, 2023
“It's obvious that the IRS hired 87,000 new agents to target only the rich,” reacted businessman Patrick Bet-David. “Bad policies have consequences.”
It is obvious that the IRS hired 87,000 new agents to target only the wealthy.
Bad policies have consequences. pic.twitter.com/nKc3le9YdB
— Patrick Bet-David (@patrickbetdavid) February 9, 2023
“The IRS just announced that they want to start tracking every tip that workers earn so they can collect taxes on it,” Fox News' Sean Hannity said. “And remember, this is all part of the so-called Biden Inflation Reduction Act.”
How reason magazine informed in 2023, the White House touted the legislation's $80 billion in new funding for the IRS, saying it would “make our tax code fairer by cracking down on millionaires, billionaires and corporations who shirk their obligations.”
“It now appears that some of these resources, quite predictably, will be directed at people who earn considerably less,” the magazine noted, adding that as a result, “the Treasury Department and the IRS announced plans to review existing programs that track tips earned by service sector workers,” citing the IRS's new SITCA program.
Ironically, Harris claimed during a campaign rally in Nevada on Saturday that he would work to “eliminate tip taxes for service and hospitality workers.”
Social media users reacted to Harris' claims with the hashtag #CopyCatKamala, noting that in June, former President Trump announced during a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, that if elected president, his administration would “not tax tips.”
you can follow Alana Mastrangelo Facebook and X a @ARmastrangeloand forward Instagram.