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nature-lover

(1,822 posts)
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 11:15 AM Monday

Tariffs are collected by Customs and Border Protection agents at 328 ports of entry across the country.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/5-things-to-know-about-tariffs-and-how-they-work

-snip-

Tariffs are a tax on imports.

Tariffs are typically charged as a percentage of the price a buyer pays a foreign seller. In the United States, tariffs are collected by Customs and Border Protection agents at 328 ports of entry across the country.

-snip-

Mainstream economists are generally skeptical about tariffs, considering them an inefficient way for governments to raise revenue.

More at link.

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So, there is an account(s) within the US Treasury where tariff money is collected. The tariff percentage is paid by the US importer (buyer) to the US Treasury, not by the foreign country of origin as the public is being told.

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Ocelot II

(123,948 posts)
1. Yes. This point has been hammered over and over by just about everybody,
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 11:18 AM
Monday

but Trump keeps claiming tariffs are paid to the US by the exporting country. No doubt the cult still believes it and will probably continue to believe it even when it starts to affect them.

nature-lover

(1,822 posts)
5. I think he knew of an account called "Tariff Revenue" and made up the part about who pays for it.
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 11:53 AM
Monday

Alternative facts

cachukis

(3,001 posts)
3. He, of whom the less said the better, will announce
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 11:25 AM
Monday

the ginormous amount of tariff revenues to justify an offset to tax cuts. His followers, never the wiser, will feel so much richer.

House of Roberts

(5,950 posts)
4. How are they going to keep the accounts of tariff payments,
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 11:36 AM
Monday

if DOGE eliminates the infrastructure that must instead be increased in size to maintain them. I suspect we are about to see the creation of a whole new redundant bureaucracy by the GOP, much as they created DHS after 9-11, where none had been needed before.

Ms. Toad

(36,460 posts)
7. Yeah. I just had to correct someone who was otherwise knowledgeable about tariffs -
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 12:04 PM
Monday

Who very carefully explained why the everyday person was ultimately going to pay the tariff . . . but explained it in terms of the export manufacturers paying it to their government which would pay it to ours (after deciding, or not, to increase the price of the goods to cover the cost of the tariffs they - the foreign manufacturers - would have to pay).

He kept arguing that the impact would be the same - and largely it will (the cost of goods to US consumers will go up). BUT, as I kept pointing out to him, tariffs were sold to the US voters pre-election as a tax on foreign governments/companies.

Many of us hammered the point as to who would ultimately pay them, but I am surprised at how many people who understood that the end consumer would pay them bought the line that they are taxes paid by foreign entities.

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