Speaking during a Fox News interview Sunday, Trump said that any additional pandemic legislation, which could incorporate a major infrastructure spending plan to stimulate the economy, must include a payroll tax cut if lawmakers want his support.
"We're not doing anything unless we get a payroll tax cut," Trump said.
Democratic lawmakers weren't enthusiastic about a payroll tax cut in March, when Trump first suggested the idea as a way to provide businesses with incentives for hiring. Several lawmakers, including the top Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee, said that a payroll tax may not be the most effective policy to help workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
In late March, Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act
, a more-than-$2-trillion bill to help families and businesses during the global outbreak of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus. The law made several temporary changes to the tax treatment of business losses and suspended limitations on business interest deductions, as well as offering an employer-based wages-paid tax credit.The law also established a refundable payroll tax credit for 50% of employer wages for companies fully or partly prohibited from operating during the crisis.
For individuals, the law directed the Internal Revenue Service to send up to $1,200 in direct stimulus payments to many Americans, and it waived the 10% early withdrawal penalty for retirement fund distributions up to $100,000 made during 2020. Other tax relief measures in the law were measures such as an above-the-line deduction for coronavirus-related charitable contributions.
An interim funding bill, which Trump signed in April, provided additional money for the loan program created by the CARES Act and additional resources for hospitals.
The White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
--Additional reporting by Stephen Cooper and Joshua Rosenberg. Editing by Neil Cohen.
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