No, Newsom didn’t propose keeping state’s income taxes | Fact check

A Nov. 9 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) claims a news outlet reported California Gov. Gavin Newsom is cutting off funds for the federal government in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s victory.
“BREAKING FOX NEWS: Reliable sources are reporting that California governor Gavin Newsom will withhold California’s 235 billion dollar 2025 federal income tax. This is a developing story,” reads the post.
It was liked more than 14,000 times in 12 days. Similar posts were shared on Facebook, Threads and X, formerly Twitter.
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The claim originated with a parody account. A spokesperson for Fox News said the outlet hadn’t reported anything like the claim. States aren’t involved in collecting federal income taxes.
No such article appears on the Fox News website, and Sofie Watson, a spokesperson for the news outlet, told USA TODAY that “this was never reported on Fox News.”
The claim originated with a Nov. 9 post on X by an account called @Colonel_Myway that labels itself as a parody. No credible news reports support the post’s claim, and Newsom, a Democrat, hasn’t released any statements or posted anything on social media about such a proposal.
The post is an example of what could be called “stolen satire,” where claims written as satire and presented that way originally are reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.
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The IRS collected about $569 million in taxes from California during the 2023 fiscal year, including about $424 million in individual income taxes. However, states can’t somehow withhold income taxes their residents owe to the federal government.
“States can’t and don’t do this,” John Buhl, a spokesperson for the Tax Policy Center, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. “For typical wage earners, their employer is responsible for withholding taxes from their paycheck and remitting those taxes directly to the IRS on their behalf. The state is not involved in that process as it pertains to federal taxes, only state taxes.”
Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects at the Tax Foundation, also said states aren’t involved in collecting federal income taxes.
“California cannot withhold federal income tax payments because taxpayers remit their federal income taxes directly to the Internal Revenue Service,” Walczak said. “Any notion that states could do this is mistaken, and any insinuation that Governor Newsom has proposed blocking federal income tax payments is false.”
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Reuters also debunked the claim.
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