Trump proposes ending taxes on overtime pay

Former President Trump on Thursday called for ending taxes on overtime wages for individuals who work more than 40 hours a week, his latest proposal to slash individual taxes if he is reelected.

"We will end all taxes on overtime. You know what that means? Think of that. That gives people more of an incentive to work, it gives the companies a lot, it's a lot easier to get the people," Trump said at a rally in Arizona.

"The people who work overtime are among the hardest working citizens in our country, and for too long no one in Washington has been looking out for them," he added.

The proposal would require congressional action. Trump did not offer additional details about how it would work.

The Harris campaign in a statement dismissed Trump's proposal as "desperate," contrasting it with the Justice Department under his first administration opting not to defend an Obama-era Labor Department rule that would have extended overtime benefits to more than 4 million workers.

“No matter how much he lies now, Donald Trump’s record and agenda are clear – as president, he stole millions of dollars of wages from the workers he purports to represent," Harris spokesperson Joseph Costello said in a statement.

"He is desperate and scrambling and saying whatever it takes to try to trick people into voting for him," Costello added. "If he takes power again, he will only look out for himself and his billionaire buddies and their big corporations. There’s only one candidate in this race who will actually fight for workers: Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho) earlier this year introduced legislation to eliminate income taxes on overtime pay, arguing it would help workers combat rising costs. His proposal noted the bill had never been attempted at the federal level.

Trump has in recent months proposed ending taxes on tipped wages and has called for eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits.

Vice President Harris, who is the Democratic nominee for president, later echoed Trump's call for eliminating taxes on tips and called for an increase in the minimum wage. Harris's campaign said her proposal would include an income limit and provisions to keep corporations from taking advantage of the policy.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that exempting tip income from federal income, as well as increasing the minimum wage, could add between $100 billion and $200 billion to the nation’s deficits in a 10-year window. 

Meanwhile, the Tax Foundation found that ending taxes on Social Security benefits would increase the deficit by $1.6 trillion over 10 years, and could quicken the insolvency of the program.

Updated at 10:01 p.m.