Rick Harrison has been building businesses on the Las Vegas Strip since 1989.
This year his workers started telling him something he'd never heard before.
What he heard back from them just destroyed the media's entire recession narrative.
Rick Harrison and the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop Are Trumps Best Evidence Against the Recession Narrative
Pawn Stars Rick Harrison didn't show up at the White House to play TV star.
He showed up because his employees were walking up to him and saying their tax refunds were twice what they used to be.
"I've had at least 10 employees tell me that their tax return was kind of, you know, they considered it astronomical. It was, like, twice what it normally is, and it just helps out," Harrison told Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany on Saturday in America.
He employs 80 workers across the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop – the Las Vegas landmark that built one of the most-watched shows in History Channel history – plus a restaurant and bar.
The numbers backing Harrison up are real.
Average tax refunds hit $3,462 this filing season – up 11 percent from last year – with IRS CEO Frank Bisignano crediting the jump directly to three provisions: no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on car loan interest.
No Tax on Tips Is Putting Real Money Back in Las Vegas Workers Pockets
Harrison didn't hedge when asked about Trump's signature policy.
"There's no tax on the first $25,000 in tips, which is really, really huge," he said. "There is a lot of single moms and things like that that are service workers, and that just – it changes everything – the no tax on tips, especially in Nevada."
No state in the country runs on tips the way Nevada does – casino dealers, cocktail waitresses, bartenders, restaurant servers, hotel staff.
Over 3.5 million tipped workers have already claimed the No Tax on Tips deduction this filing season, with an average $1,300 tax cut per worker, according to Ways and Means Committee data.
A waitress clearing $20,000 in tips a year and paying at the 22 percent bracket just saved $4,400 in federal income taxes.
That's rent money. Car payment money. Money that stays in Las Vegas instead of going to Washington.
100 Percent Bonus Depreciation Is the One Big Beautiful Bill Provision Nobody Is Talking About
Harrison put equal weight on the provision media coverage barely touches – full equipment depreciation.
"The full depreciation on equipment is a godsend to so many businesses," Harrison said.
Under Biden, that write-off was phasing down to 60 percent in 2026 and disappearing from there.
Trump's law reset it to 100 percent and locked it in permanently.
A business owner buying a $60,000 delivery van now writes off the entire $60,000 in year one – saving roughly $13,200 in federal tax.
The U.S. Treasury reports those cuts have already reduced taxes for over 12 million small business owners by roughly $7,000 each.
Harrison also named full factory construction deductions and the 20 percent small business pass-through deduction – the provision that prevented a tax rate more than doubling for 26 million small businesses.
What Biden Told Small Business Owners
Harrison didn't forget the comparison.
"The last guy in office, all we heard was that we were the evil people, we were the bad people, everything else like that, we don't pay our fair share," he said.
Biden spent four years treating small business owners as tax cheats, running up inflation that crushed the same workers Harrison employs, and proposing to raise taxes on the pass-through income that keeps millions of family businesses alive.
Trump flipped every one of those policies.
The result is Rick Harrison's employees walking into his office to tell him their tax refunds doubled – and Harrison flying to Washington to say so to the president's face.
Sources:
- Madison Colombo, "Pawn Stars icon Rick Harrison says Trump tax policies change everything for small businesses," Fox News, May 16, 2026.
- "No Tax on Tips: Real, Targeted Relief for the Working Class," Ways and Means Committee, April 1, 2026.
- "One, Big, Beautiful Bill provisions," Internal Revenue Service, May 2026.
- "2026 Post-filing season update," Wolters Kluwer, April 2026.
- "Trump touts administration's wins for small businesses at White House summit," Washington Times, May 4, 2026.
- "Working Families Tax Cuts," U.S. Small Business Administration, April 9, 2026.