The Trump administration is considering an option of allowing the president's 2017 tax cuts to expire for the top 1% richest Americans as a way to pay for his campaign promise of not taxing tips, Axios reported.
The move would adjust the top tax rate from 37% to the pre-2018 rate of 39.6%, according to the report. It would also lower the threshold of the top rate from $609,351 for an individual or $731,201 for a married couple, Axios reported.
President Donald Trump first unveiled his vow to end federal income tax on tips during a campaign rally in Las Vegas last June.
However, the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said Thursday that that pledge — in addition to extending Trump's signature 2017 tax cuts and some of his other proposals — could add $11 trillion to the debt over the next decade.
Allowing the President Bill Clinton-era tax rate to be levied on the nation's superrich would help offset those pledges on tips, though the report gave no estimates about how much it could generate.
Further, the move would also blunt Democrat criticism that Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency are cutting the federal government just to give more tax breaks to the wealthy, according to the report.
White House officials told Axios the talks are in preliminary stages.