Howard Lutnick, the newly confirmed Commerce Secretary under President Donald Trump‘s administration, reiterated the President’s proposal for the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
What Happened: While appearing on Jesse Watters Primetime on Fox News, Lutnick was asked his opinion on the much talked about DOGE dividends. In response, the Commerce Secretary stated, “Think about it, Donald Trump announces the External Revenue Service, and his goal is very simple … his goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay.”
In January, Trump had floated the idea of eliminating federal income taxes entirely. During his conference in Doral, Florida, the President stated, “…instead of taxing our citizens to enrich foreign nations, we should be tariffing and taxing foreign nations to enrich our citizens.”
Lutnick also revealed that Elon Musk, who is currently serving as a senior White House adviser leading the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has plans to “cut” $1 trillion. He further added, “Then we’re going to get rid of all these tax scams that hammer against America, and we’re going to raise a trillion dollars of revenue.”
Why It Matters: This proposal comes in the wake of reports that the IRS is on the brink of dismissing a substantial number of employees, including probationary ones. This move could significantly impact the agency’s operations during the crucial tax filing season. The Office of Personnel Management has instructed all agencies to terminate their probationary employees who are relatively new to their roles and do not have full job protections.
The DOGE has recently faced a lot of criticism regarding its mass firings of probationary officers in key federal agencies. Notably, Lutnick did not discuss the mass IRS layoffs during the interview.
Trump’s idea of an External Revenue Service has met with mixed responses from analysts and economists. Erica York, Vice President of the Federal Tax Policy, had previously told Fox News, “Tariffs are not external revenue; they are taxes on U.S. importers that shrink both the U.S. economy and U.S. incomes. Higher tariffs will create a drag on the U.S. economy and will threaten to offset the benefits of tax cuts elsewhere. They should not be relied upon as a major source of tax revenue.”
Meanwhile, a recent poll by Benzinga revealed that among Apple AAPL, Nvidia NVDA, Tesla (TSLA) and Boeing BA, 35% of the respondents feel that Apple will bear the maximum brunt of the tariffs.
Image via Shutterstock
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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