As Americans prepare to file their taxes, they should know they’ve already been paying a new one all year — import taxes, better known as tariffs. Despite political rhetoric to the contrary, that’s exactly what tariffs are: a tax on consumption, and a regressive one at that.

The Tax Foundation estimates that tariffs amount to an average tax increase of $1,000 per U.S. household in 2025, hitting lower-income families hardest, since they spend a larger share of their earnings on imported goods such as food, clothing, and gasoline.