In an effort to educate her colleagues in Congress on the unfairness of the $10,000 cap on federal income tax deductions for amounts paid in State and Local Taxes (SALT), New Jersey Representative Mikie Sherrill is taking the House Floor on twelve consecutive days to talk about the cap’s impact on New Jersey residents, businesses, and homeowners. She is highlighting the penalty it imposes on married couples, filing jointly. And she explains how it punishes states that invest in their communities–‘investments in roads, libraries, schools, first responders, and teachers.’
Referring to a favorite Christmas carol, Representative Sherrill has dubbed this series of speeches the ‘12 Days of SALT.’ On this past Wednesday, the sixth ‘Day of SALT,’ she read into the Congressional Record the NJ League of Municipalities Conference Resolution No. 2019-14, which called on Congress to lift the cap. That Resolution was approved at our Annual Conference, last month.
You can read more about her campaign to convince Congress to lift the SALT Cap in a story, which appeared last Friday in the Sparta Independent.
Also of note, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, on Wednesday, approved a bill that would double the $10,000 cap The bill, H.R. 5377, the 'Restoring Tax Fairness to States and Localities Act', which is co-sponsored by New Jersey Representative Bill Pascrell, creates a $20,000 SALT deduction for married couples who file jointly, which would go into effect immediately for tax year 2019.
The bill also calls for the SALT cap to be repealed for tax years 2020 and 2021. The top-end federal income-tax rate of 39.6% would be restored, starting in 2020, to offset revenue that would not be collected by the federal government once the $10,000 cap is eliminated.
Contacts:
• Frank Marshall, Esq., League Staff Attorney, fmarshall@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, ext. 137.
• Jon Moran, Senior Legislative Analyst, jmoran@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, ext. 121.