Still, Democrats needed to take Trump’s gambit seriously, not least because the Culinary Union Local 226, which represents 60,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas and Reno, supported the idea.
Vice President Kamala Harris came out in favor of the proposal at her first Nevada rally in August. Her campaign — and the Culinary Union — see her more detailed position, including a commitment to preventing high-earning professionals and executives from using it to evade federal income taxes, as more credible, effective and comprehensive.
Trump has not exactly done anything to assuage these critics’ concerns. Indeed, he has not actually rolled out anything that could be considered a “plan” to exempt tips from federal taxes. It’s not clear, for example, whether he would exempt them from all federal taxes, which would include the payroll taxes that fund workers’ Social Security and Medicare benefits.
“You can’t just say ‘no taxes on tips,’ which is Trump’s way to try to buy votes,” Bethany Khan, a spokesperson for the Culinary Union, told HuffPost.
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Rep. Steven Horsford, a Nevada Democrat who previously ran the Culinary Union’s Culinary Academy, announced in August he would be introducing the TIPS Act as a legislative model for Harris’ version of the no tax on tips idea. The bill, which does not yet have specific legislative language, would eliminate the subminimum wage for tipped workers and end taxes on tips, while ensuring high earners in traditionally untipped fields don’t exploit the new tax exemption.