With primary provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act set to expire come 2025, either President Joe Biden or President Donald Trump will face a showdown in Congress to extend the tax cuts or let them die. But the former president has reportedly teased a plan to entirely sidestep this dilemma over his signature domestic achievement. In recent closed-door remarks to Republican lawmakers at the Capitol Hill Club, Trump proposed replacing our income tax leviathan with a massive expansion of tariffs on imports.

It goes without saying that as with all of his propositions, Trump’s scheme to replace personal income taxes with an expanded tariff regime is subject to change. It could be scaled back or even discarded at the pleasure of the presidential hopeful. But considering that Trump has not blasted reporting on this proposal as fake news, it’s worth evaluating it seriously.