Trump pledges to nix double taxation for Americans abroad

New to the list of former President Trump’s campaign tax proposals is a plan to end double taxation for Americans living overseas.

“I support ending the double taxation of overseas Americans,” Trump said in a statement shared Thursday with The Hill.

Americans living abroad can have tax obligations both to the U.S. and to the country where they reside, though U.S. tax laws have some features to mitigate those dual burdens.

But that’s still a relatively unusual mandate, as many countries allow their citizens not to pay taxes while they’re residing abroad.

Trump’s proposal could reduce that tax burden and make it easier for wealthier Americans to move abroad, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story.

Current international exemptions for Americans working abroad include the foreign earned income exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion and the foreign housing deduction.

The statement shared with The Hill did not go into detail about the scope of Trump’s intended international tax changes.

Both Trump and Vice President Harris have offered a number of potential changes to the tax code as campaign pitches ahead of major revisions to the tax laws that are anticipated for next year.

Harris’s include credits for first-time homebuyers, new parents and people who would like to start a small business.

Trump has pitched canceling taxes on tips and overtime pay, as well as changes to social security taxation.

The cost of Trump’s proposed tax changes could substantially add to the national deficit. Official estimates of a straight extension of the expiring provisions in his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act have been placed at $4 trillion over the next decade, or $400 billion per year, by the Center for American Progress (CAP), a Washington think tank.

The Bipartisan Policy Center put that number at $5 trillion in a recent estimate.

In a side-by-side comparison of the budgetary costs of the Harris and Trump fiscal plans, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projected that Trump’s tax and spending plans could cost as much as $15.15 trillion, while Harris’s could cost $8.1 trillion.

On the low end, Harris’s could break even, while Trump’s could cost $1.45 trillion. The central tendency for the plans is a $3.5 trillion deficit addition for Harris and a $7.5 trillion addition for Trump

Budgetary deficits, which ballooned after the rescue measures sent out as a result of the pandemic, are top of mind for many policymakers in Washington, and the International Monetary Fund has also called for the U.S. to address its debt level.