Trump launched the External Revenue Service to transfer taxes from Americans to international trading partners through tariffs and duties.
President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to establish the External Revenue Service (ERS), a new organization based on the IRS, to collect taxes, fees, and income from foreign nations rather than American taxpayers.
In a social media post on January 14, Trump revealed the plan, presenting it as an attempt to transfer the tax burden from American citizens to foreign companies that profit from trade with the US.
He said, “We have relied on using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to tax our Great People for far too long.” ” The US economy has brought progress and wealth to the world while punishing ourselves through regretfully weak and soft trade deals. That needs to change now.
Trump has frequently denounced what he considers to be unfair trade deals drafted by previous governments, suggesting that they disadvantage the US while disproportionately benefiting foreign allies. He has also voiced serious concerns over the country’s trade deficit, which in 2023 was $773.4 billion for both goods and services. Trump has defended his proposals for waving import tariffs as a necessary move to correct what he regards as a long-standing wrong sapping America’s economic power, citing this large trade imbalance.
On his first day in office, January 20, Trump announced the beginning of the ERS. By collecting tariffs, taxes, and other trade-related taxes on items imported into the US, the agency will focus on generating income from overseas sources. The objective seems to be to transfer part of the burden of government spending from domestic taxpayers to foreign countries and businesses that gain access to the U.S. market.
Trump declared, “We will start using trade to penalize those who profit from us.” “They will finally begin to pay their fair share.”
Trump has long supported economic nationalism, and this declaration is the most recent step in that direction. During his first term in office, Trump regularly used tariffs—or the threat of them—as a negotiating tool to renegotiate trade agreements that he believed were harmful to American companies. According to him, tariffs promote the return of manufacturing employment and shield home companies from unfair overseas competition.
Additionally, Trump has continuously promoted tariffs as a flexible instrument for crafting policies. Trump recently threatened to place 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico unless they take right away to stop the flow of illegal immigration and fentanyl entering the United States from their countries.
