Introducing TariffTax.org: Every Tariff Is a Tax — See Who Pays

Here's something that should be simple but somehow isn't: tariffs are taxes. They're not paid by China. They're not paid by Europe. They're paid by American importers, who pass the cost to American consumers, who pay more for everything from iPhones to washing machines to groceries. This isn't editorial opinion — it's what the data shows, overwhelmingly, across every serious economic study ever conducted. TariffTax.org is our platform for making that data impossible to ignore.

The Thesis: You're Already Paying

Politicians love tariffs because they're invisible. Unlike income taxes or sales taxes, you never see a line item on your receipt that says "tariff surcharge: $47." The cost is baked into the price. Your washing machine costs $150 more. Your car costs $2,000 more. Your groceries creep up a few dollars every week. You pay, but you don't see yourself paying — and that's exactly how both parties like it.

Republicans use tariffs for trade wars. Democrats use them for industrial policy. Both claim the other country is "paying." Neither is telling the truth. The customs duties are paid at the border by American importers, and study after study — from the Fed, from the Tax Foundation, from academic economists left and right — confirms that nearly 100% of the cost is passed through to consumers. TariffTax.org exists to show you exactly how much.

What's on the Platform

279 pages. Not a blog with hot takes — a data platform with receipts.

The Constitutional Crisis Nobody's Talking About

Here's something that should worry everyone regardless of party: the current tariff regime is being imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — a 1977 law designed for actual national emergencies like freezing terrorist assets. It was never intended to impose sweeping import taxes on allied nations. Multiple federal courts have flagged this. The constitutional question — whether the president can unilaterally impose taxes that Article I of the Constitution reserves to Congress — is heading to the Supreme Court. TariffTax.org tracks this legal battle in real time.

By the Numbers: What Tariffs Actually Cost You

The effective tariff rate — total duties collected divided by total imports — is now the highest it's been since 1972. The US is projected to collect $287 billion in tariff revenue in 2025. That's $287 billion taken from American consumers and businesses, laundered through the customs system, and deposited in the Treasury. It's a tax. Call it what it is.

And the jobs math doesn't work either. While tariffs are pitched as protecting American workers, the data shows 304,000 jobs affected — and not all in the direction you'd expect. For every steel job "saved" by steel tariffs, multiple jobs are lost in industries that use steel. The washing machine tariffs created about 1,800 manufacturing jobs at a cost of roughly $817,000 per job — paid by consumers through higher prices.

Why We Built This

We're not anti-trade and we're not pro-trade. We're pro-transparency. If the government wants to tax you, it should have to call it a tax. If a policy costs your household $4,000 a year, you should be able to see that number. If retaliatory tariffs are killing soybean exports in Iowa, Iowa voters should know. If the constitutional basis for these tariffs is shaky, citizens should understand what's at stake.

The editorial angle is simple: show the data, follow the money, name the cost. We think most Americans — left, right, libertarian, whatever — would object to a $4,000 hidden tax if they could see it. TariffTax makes it visible.

TariffTax.org joins TheDataProject's portfolio alongside SPACGraveyard, WarCosts, OpenMedicare, OpenCrime, and 10 other public data platforms. Every tariff is a tax. Now you can see who pays.