“At 25%, we have an income stream to pay for the wall.”
The tax on remittances doesn’t have to be nearly that high, it would most likely be a tenth of that. The current volume is $25 billion a year. I’ve heard that there is also something like $8 billion in seized cartel money that can be used.
I agree. I’d also like to see some of those funds help to pay back what these folks have been stripping from our tax receipts.
Only Congress can pass new taxes. However a jillion, Do Nothing, alphabet Govt agencies already exist. EPA, NRA, NTA, DOT etc can all be easily justified to budget wall building.
A wall is an EPA environmental issue, a NRA gun issue, NTA education issue, DOT transportation issue, plus hundreds more ... ALL LEGAL!
Send their employees south and build. If Congress denies Trump’s payment method then Congress gets the blame.
But Wall Building can begin legally day one inauguration.
Many countries tax outgoing money flows, particularly if they could possibly be related to income. Often the rates are pretty steep, close to 20% in one case if I recall correctly.
There is no reason not to charge every tax that could apply to an outgoing remittance unless there is proof it isn't a transfer of untaxed income.
I'm no fan of taxes, since they are the fuel for a fire of government growth and overreach, but it would be very simple to discourage employment of illegal immigrants if the employment tax code had higher FICA, FUTA, Medicare, and income tax rates for individuals who were not citizens.
ICE may ignore illegal immigrants, but the IRS is certainly not going to ignore the opportunity to collect additional taxes from businesses that employ non-citizen employees. And no employer would want to get caught having to pay the extra taxes if an audit turned up employees who were not citizens but whose tax was withheld and paid at the citizen's rate.