MPR News with Angela Davis

Proposals to end federal income taxes on tips

a phone shows a tipping screen
Tip options for take-out food are displayed on a phone screen in Washington, D.C., on March 17, 2023.
Stefani Reynolds | AFP via Getty Images

Cutting taxes on tips may sound like a good idea, but many economists don’t love it.

Earlier this summer, former President Trump proposed eliminating federal taxes on tips. A few weeks ago, Vice President Harris said if elected, she would also seek to end taxes on tipped income for service and hospitality workers like servers, bartenders and barbers. 

While tips are considered taxable income, cash tips for restaurant workers and others have gone largely unreported. But, that has changed with the proliferation of credit cards and mobile payment options.

On Tuesday, MPR News host Angela Davis and her guests talk about why the idea may not help and could actually hurt most tipped workers. 

Two men posing for a portrait
Timothy Taylor (left), an economist and managing editor of the “Journal of Economic Perspectives,” stands with Chris Farrell (right), MPR News senior economics contributor, in the Kling Public Media Center in St. Paul on Tuesday.
Nikhil Kumaran | MPR News
three people sitting in a broadcast studio
MPR News host Angela Davis (left) talks with Chris Farrell (center), MPR News senior economics contributor and Timothy Taylor (right), economist and managing editor of the “Journal of Economic Perspectives, in an MPR News studio in St. Paul on Tuesday.
Nikhil Kumaran | MPR News


Guests:

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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.