Donald Trump’s promise to end taxes on Social Security income is the most popular economic proposal from both presidential candidates, a new poll has found.
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted between October 4 to 8 among 2,631 adults has found that Trump’s promise to end taxes levied on Social Security benefits is the most popular economic proposal of the 2024 presidential campaign, with 55 percent of those responding strongly supporting the idea, and 85 percent supporting the proposal overall.
Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris‘ economic proposals—that are unrelated to Social Security—are also proving popular with voters, albeit less than that of her political opponent.
The poll found that her pledge to boost child tax credits for middle-class and low-income families is popular with 71 percent of those surveyed, while her plans to limit the amount of profit made by food companies on groceries were backed by 65 percent.
Donald Trump walks onstage for a campaign rally on October 12, 2024, in Coachella, California. The former president pledged earlier this year to ax taxes levied on Social Security income.
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No Taxes on Social Security—What’s the Deal?
Trump pledged to end all taxes levied on retirement benefits issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA) in July, writing on his social media platform Truth Social: “SENIORS SHOULD NOT PAY TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY!”
During an interview on Fox & Friends in early August, the former president said: “We can do a lot of things to help the people. People on Social Security are being killed, and one of the things I’m doing is no tax for seniors on Social Security, and I’ll get it done quickly.”
Some 40 percent of benefit recipients currently pay federal income taxes on retirement, spousal and disability benefits—not including Supplemental Security Income, according to the SSA.
As it currently stands, those who claim Social Security retirement benefits whose total income is above certain thresholds have to pay taxes on part or all of their benefits. Single filers earning between $25,000 and $34,000 are subject to taxation on 50 percent of benefits, while those above can have up to 85 percent of their payments taxed.
Joint filers are subject to the same rules, but at different thresholds, with couples earning $32,000 and $44,000 taxed on up to 50 percent, and above that up to 85 percent.
While the proposal would keep more money in the pockets of seniors in the short term, tax experts have broadly condemned the plan as it would cut the funding necessary to keep Social Security programs afloat.
The revenue from taxation of up to 50 percent of benefits is put into the Social Security Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance trust fund, while the remainder helps shore up the Medicare Hospital Insurance trust fund.
The SSA is currently facing a depletion of these trust funds, which help pay for benefits along with tax revenue, which could see benefits slashed by around 20 percent if Congress doesn’t act before 2034, when the funds are currently projected to be completely depleted.
How the revenue collected to keep the SSA solvent would be replaced has not been outlined by Trump or his campaign.
Newsweek has contacted Trump and Harris’ campaign teams, and the SSA for comment via email outside of normal working hours.
Without a pathway in place to recoup the revenue loss, the Tax Foundation has estimated Trump’s policy would reduce tax revenue by about $1.4 trillion from 2025 to 2034, and would “likely accelerate the insolvency of the trust funds.”
Devin Carroll, owner and lead adviser at Carroll Advisory Group, previously told Newsweek that removing a source of revenue from the SSA without a viable replacement would “exacerbate the already looming shortfall” faced by the government agency, and could potentially “lead to even more severe benefit cuts in the future.”
