Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Tuesday called on Republicans to eliminate the cap on deductibility of state and local taxes (SALT) as part of the next coronavirus relief package.
The HEROES Act, passed by the House in May, would repeal the cap for 2020 and 2021. That legislation stands no chance of advancing in the Republican-controlled Senate, but Schumer said that keeping the SALT provision from that bill is one of the top priorities for Senate Democrats. “We need to cushion the blow of this virus,” Schumer said Tuesday, according to New York’s Newsday. “The SALT cap hurts people affected by the virus. It hurts so many of the metropolitan areas like New York and so we want to change it and we will.”
Repealing the $10,000 cap, imposed as part of the 2017 Republican tax law, would overwhelmingly benefit high-income taxpayers in high-tax states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California. In a statement to Newsday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said eliminating the cap “would change tax law to provide massively expensive gifts to wealthy people in high-tax blue states."
