Aligning with the concept of using tariffs to fund government operations, President Trump has announced his intention to create the External Revenue Service. It appears to be a collection and enforcement mechanism to gather income from tariffs, duties and other sources that will pay for access to the U.S. consumer market.
[SOURCE]
One of the issues the External Revenue Service will likely address is the de minimis loophole.
The de minimis loophole comes from back in the 1930s. The idea back then was, say you went on a vacation to Paris, you shouldn’t have to file customs paperwork or pay taxes if you decided to ship some little Eiffel Tower statues to your friends back home.
Congress in 2015 then raised the de minimis threshold from $200 to $800. However, the e-commerce world exploded, and Chinese companies began using the de minimis loophole to ship cheap goods (ex. Temu and Shein) into the USA direct to consumers without paying any customs duty.
It was reported last year that the U.S. was on track to receive a billion packages through the de minimis loophole that aren’t taxed and don’t have customs slips saying what they are. Making matters worse, illegal items are slipping through the cracks, including, knockoffs, unsafe items and even chemicals used to make fentanyl. The worst abuser that exploits this de minimis loophole is, by far, China.
President Trump can require a customs and duty declaration stating what is in every package and subsequently collect tariffs and duties.
Something tells me shutting down the de minimis issue is part of the background for this “ERS” announcement.
sounds sketchy to me
our government who spends money like a junky
now has more resources to spend.
all I know is once the greedy SOB’s start to take something, they rarely ever stop.
Agreed. We don’t need another effing department. Let treasury or customs do their damn jobs.
If the ERS eventually leads to the end of the IRS, along with income tax, wouldn’t that be a good thing?
that is a big IF and only a rumor
sure it makes it sound more acceptable
you really think they will do any more then throw you a lousy bone??
these are people who cannot help themselves
Junkies
Yes it would be a great thing if we were to eliminate the Federal income tax and thereby eliminate the IRS. I don’t think we can tariff enough to feed the D.C. monster today but if we can just make even a portion of DOGE’s recommendations work, we may be cutting enough costs for it to work under either President Vance or President Hegseth.
It maybe a pipe dream but it is a pipe dream worth working on.
by end of the March 2025??????
That would be nice, but probably not realistic.
True, but there should be some numbers. Step 1.
Yes, but when have you ever seen government eliminate anything? Thus, odds are that you end up with both an ERS and an IRS. And while Trump might use an ERS well (strategically), subsequent Presidents probably will not. It’ll get twisted in another way to force other countries to support some crazy Democrat policies (e.g., climate change, LGBTQXYZLMNOP nonsense, etc.).
When have we had a President like Trump, with both chambers of congress & an agency like DOGE? Never.
I know it won’t be easy & we’ve got RINOs, etc., but you can’t achieve shit if you don’t try.
Trump achieved a lot in his first term with a lot more working against him than he has now.
An article the other day (think it was on WesternJournal.com) compared Trump to the democrats’ Moby Dick.
I’m just saying don’t automatically be negative about this dept. just because of history that Trump had nothing to do with.
“Agreed”.
With just re elected in a history transforming victory, PRESIDRNT Trump and this sites creator and sole content provider, Sundamce?
If so, me too.
If agreeing with anonymous, armchair I-Know-Betters who immediately reacted with negativity, I definitely do NOT agree.
As Socrates famously observed about those who are actually wise, ” he who knows, knows how little they actually know”. Consequently a wise response is typically to observe, ask sincere questions and ponder rather than to be in a rush.
In fact, just a few years ago, being in a rush to form an opinion was viewed as tween foolish and saying “I don’t have enough information yet to have an opinion” was encouraged.
Hence the phrases about being seen rather than heard and about the value of silence being golden.
Isn’t it already the Customs Bureau’s job to collect duties, tariffs and other taxes on stuff brought in from other countries?
Yes, but they have that “de minimus” issue.
So THAT’s what the de minimis loophole is. Thanks for the explanation!
This new External Revenue Service should give us a good public accounting of collections and sources.
‘illegal items are slipping through the cracks’ – Sundance
I regularly order prescription drugs from overseas, without a prescription. And I LIKE IT.
One of the enormous hassles of living in LatAm is prohibitive Customs paperwork and duties for trivial items, such as a $15 charger for your laptop. Their nuisance charges can triple or quintuple the cost, while adding days of delay.
Slap this penny-ante, bureaucratic harassment onto Americans, and they will be justifiably disgusted and annoyed.
The so-called de minimis ‘loophole’ is economic freedom in its purest form. Far from ending it, it should be expanded. Every non-corporate individual consumer should enjoy total free trade with the rest of the planet.
Ain’t that America! 🙂
The only “non-corporate individual consumer(s)” in this country are those of us who’ve reclaimed our political status as American nationals. When your birth was registered (birth certificate) you unknowingly became a corporate person, a Territorial U.S. citizen, the same as if you had been born in Puerto Rico, subject to all their statutes, codes, and regulations in their legal sea jurisdiction. You are not living under the law of the land (Anerican Common Law).
Perhaps we should think about the benefits of making those products in the US, particularly given our unemployment problems.
Make-work jobs go against my capitalistic libertarian nature, but the world really isn’t a free market. Hard to call it that when its not a level playing field.
Thank you
Hopefully it helps to reduce slave and child labor.
No, it ain’t.
One of the “hassles” of living in America is Federal Income Tax. A few other hassles include property tax, sales tax, capital gains tax, federal withholding tax, FICA, state income tax, license plates, vehicle stickers…Tax Freedom Day is now calculated to fall around the end of April. Four months of your labor to pay “Your Share.” At our founding, it is estimated it was two weeks, not four months.
The costs of compliance is an indirect tax. Think of the social costs; the mothers who had to go to a job and dump the kids at daycare.
Imports are subsidized by the “hassles”placed upon Americans. Americans should be able to enjoy free trade within America.
America First.
And precisely WHY, after the President gets the ERS up and running, he needs to abolish the IRS. We Americans are sick and tired of those bureaucrats inflicting their will on us every time we turn around with their unconstitutional, and not voted on by Congress laws, and it costing us more of our hard earned dollars.
Keep it for Americans, find a way to punish China
Take a good hard look at where the “free trade” approach has gotten us over the past 40 years.
I ship packages of items up to 18kg in weight to the US & Canada once or twice per annum (from Oz).
The value is far below the import duty threshold and I have to specify exactly what is contained within those packages, by both weight and quantity, on the Customs Declaration.
However, when I purchase an item from outside Australia, I am automatically charged a Goods & Services Tax of 10%, prior to payment for said item. This 10% goes into Australian Government coffers (probably for slap up Christmas parties or Friday afternoons at the local watering hole).
I’m assuming a similar charge by the ERS.
This will never, of course, be used against middle-class Americans. No! Not once! (Sarcasm over.)
Given the amount of Euro dollar debt created by international banks, this will raise the value of the dollar.
In short our remaining imports will become less expensive or the same price even with higher tariffs.
Increasing our independence to at least 50% on all necessities from the ‘New’ world (Canada to Argentina), the American continent, should be our focus.
Our ancestors left the old world for a reason.
The real harm to our citizens doesn’t come from the income taxes as much as it does from inflation. If President Trump really wants to make a historic change it will ultimately require the termination of the inflationary fiat currency and a return to the precious metal standard. It is the only way to stop the uncontrollable spending and inflation . With our fiat currency the government can print and spend at will with the inflation of our currency being a hidden but very real tax. They can do this until things are so bad that the people physically revolt as has happened in numerous countries throughout history.
Is it even possible? Let’s recall twenty five years ago when the Europeans converted the currencies of fifteen or so countries to the Euro in the time span of weeks. They still have a fiat currency. I’m only speaking here to the new currency exchange. Determining the gold value of the new $1.00 and coinage content would be issues to be studied.
Many people consider their home as their largest investment. Let’s say you bought a home thirty years ago for $100,000. Suppose it is now paid off and you decide to sell for $400,000. If, having made no significant improvements to the home- is the home worth four times as much, or is your dollar worth a quarter? The $300,000 is considered a gain. For who?
“Long-term capital gains for properties you owned for over a year are taxed at 0 percent, 15 percent or 20 percent depending on your income tax bracket.”
You illustrate my point. The hassle- three brackets “depending on your income tax bracket.”
Imagine what one could do with one’s life if not spent figuring out how to comply with and avoid income taxes? Maybe one could build something.
Now, if rather than a “home,” we substitute “business” and we will have another set of rules. We’ll have to recapture any depreciation, and then pay capital gain tax, unless, you purchase another structure of equal or greater value.
Oh the fairness of it all!
Where is the inflation adjustment factor?
(Not to overlook that you do not own any property- you just rent it from the county)
Repealing the Income Tax will reduce inflation by making America more productive. The cost of compliance stifles production- making everything more expensive.
Luke 11:46-
And He said, “Woe to you also, lawyers! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
This de minimis loophole can be fixed by it applying only to individuals and not companies. Tourists can still ship nicknacks back home but companies like Temu must pay tax.
SPACE FORCE in term-1,
and now External Revenue Service in term-2.
His legacy is growing beyond our imagination.
🙂
We also need an External Intelligence Agency (EIA) that will limit itself to only spying on foreign threats rather than US Citizens.
Good Grief, Trump must have IQ above 200. WOW! Excellent. Anyone in business know what this means. Bravo!
Just so everyone understands, JD Rockefeller, became rich is because it studied the pennies. His early legers were accurate to the penny. Later it was dollars. I am impressed.
An organization capable of investigating the Biden family’s external income?
The tariffs may or not produce positive outcomes for us normal people, most of us.
I’m all for some disruption and throwing a wrench into some gears though.
To me, the tariff suggestion itself is like a hand grenade being tossed into a globalized concept that has produced a toxic fruit.
Destruction, or even a forced retreat of this hideous beast will require shattering it’s foundations.
Root and vine.
Only if another department is disbanded. One in, one out. New departments are not needed
Will individuals pay higher for goods and services thereby having people to pay more which in itself is taxation?
It is the ER Service, not a department. A new department is a big deal with bragging rights and a lot of connotations. This is a first step. After revenue starts coming in, it will look much better-DC likes revenue and DC burrowcrats will have a place to land. A year of numbers will put the IRS in the target zone.
I always thought for sure that the USA already had such a Tool in place to Collect $$$ Owed to them! I’m kind of “Shook” to to know this now, as Canada has had Tax Collectors, both Federal & Provincial for as long as I have been in business. NOW, Canada under Trudy, was probably doing the Same thing as the US Dems & Catering to Foriengers, at the Expense of Taxpayers! Fin’ A-holes!
All I know is if you want to steal something, do it while things are chaotic, like …
A party where there are a lot of people, too many with opportunity to figure out who stole the candlestick in the library, …
Under new rules, having ballots coming in from too many different directions, so not having protocols and monitoring in place to trust a fair outcome is ignored and excused., …
A complicated income tax procedure, so laden down with rules and exceptions, an industry was created to help people get the breaks to which they are legally entitled, while others just go with what the IRS made easier, to hand over all their money no questions asked.
Anything to reduce the CHAOS would be nice.