Tax Deduction That Benefits the Rich Divides Democrats Before Vote

[Zorro]

House Democrats are poised to lift a cap on the state and local tax deduction, a gift to wealthy homeowners in some blue states.

WASHINGTON — A plan by House Democrats to reduce taxes for high earners in states like New Jersey, New York and California in their $1.85 trillion social policy spending package is becoming an early political albatross for the party, with Republicans already mobilizing to accuse Democrats of defying their populist principles in favor of cutting taxes for the rich.

The criticism offers a preview of the emerging battle lines ahead of next year’s midterm elections and underscores the challenge that Democrats face when local politics collide with the party’s national ambitions to promote economic equity. For Republicans who have defended their 2017 tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy, the proposal by Democrats to raise the limit on the state and local tax deduction is an opportunity to flip the script and cast Democrats as the party of plutocrats.

“I think they’re struggling to maintain their professed support for taxing the wealthy, yet they are providing a huge tax windfall under the SALT cap,” said Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, referring to the acronym for state and local taxes. “If your priorities are working families, make that the priority, not the wealthy.”

Republicans, looking for ways to finance their own tax cuts in 2017, capped the amount of state and local taxes that households could deduct from their federal tax bills at $10,000. Democrats from high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California have spent years promising to repeal the cap and are poised to lift it to $80,000 through 2030, before reducing it back to $10,000 in 2031. The cap, which is currently set to disappear in 2025, would then expire permanently in 2032.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/18/us/politics/salt-tax-deduction-democrats.html

The SALT cap was a great big FUCK YOU by Republicans to California, New Jersey, and New York voters. The NYT is again misrepresenting lifting the cap as a "gift to wealthy homeowners".

[JT45242]

1. Total BS

The salt tax cap hurt me badly as a middle class person in Iowa. I live in an area with high property taxes, high taxes on cars paid every year for license plate fees, and of course state income taxes.

The salt cap was strictly a targeted attack on areas with high property taxes, which are mostly blue. It affects all of us, not just the rich.

[skylucy]

3. Totally agree JT!

[Freddie]

4. Absolutely

Lifting the SALT limit (a sneaky way to punish blue states) would help everyone, not just the rich!

[skylucy]

2. I'm in the California Bay Area and I agree with you Zorro!

[stuffmatters]

5. Totally agree

Yes, NYT is peddling anti Dem BS once again. In Ca if you own a house in SD, OC, LA or SF area plus pay state income tax, you are probably well over the cap and got a tax stink bomb.