In the early twentieth century, earlier than America had an revenue tax, tariffs paid most of the authorities’s payments. President Donald Trump needs to revive that strategy. He has repeatedly floated the concept of an “External Revenue Service”, underneath which Uncle Sam would scrap revenue taxes and as a substitute depend on border levies, with foreigners, a minimum of in concept, funding the American authorities. “It will likely be a BONANZA,” Mr Trump posted just lately on his social-media web site, claiming tariffs may all however remove revenue taxes for individuals incomes lower than $200,000 a yr.