U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York) and U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) joined local families in Lake Success on Tuesday and continued their push for repealing the cap on the state and local tax deduction.
Repealing the tax cap, Suozzi said, will provide local governments and residents in states such as New York, which have been affected the most by the coronavirus, necessary resources in the ongoing battle against the virus.
“The full SALT deduction must be restored,” Suozzi said. “Without the full SALT deduction families will leave New York and the last thing we need in the midst of the health and economic devastation of coronavirus is to lose our residents and taxpayers.”
“When it comes to SALT, if you think Long Islanders needed and deserved this money before the coronavirus took hold, the stakes are even higher now because the cap is costing this community tens of thousands of dollars they could be using amid the crisis,” Schumer said. “We need to bring our federal dollars back home and cushion the blow this virus – and this harmful SALT cap – has dealt so many homeowners and families locally.”
Schumer said he and Suozzi will push to insert language to restore the full deduction in the upcoming COVID relief package, which could include extended unemployment insurance, health insurance for laid-off workers, and hazard pay for frontline health care workers.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said in a statement that eliminating the cap on the state and local tax deductions “would change tax law to provide massively expensive gifts to wealthy people in high-tax blue states.”
The cap, signed into law by President Donald Trump, limits the deduction for state and local taxes on federal tax returns to $10,000. It has led to increased federal taxes in areas with high property taxes like Long Island.
Schumer and U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) aided Suozzi in passing a bipartisan bill to increase the cap to $20,000 for the 2020 tax filing year in the House of Representatives.
The Restoring Tax Fairness for States and Localities Act, sponsored by Suozzi, would increase the tax deduction for state and local taxes in 2019 to $20,000 for individuals filing a joint tax return if the adjusted gross income of the taxpayer does not exceed $100 million.
The act would also eliminate the current $10,000 cap on the deduction in 2020 and 2021 except for taxpayers whose adjusted gross income exceeds $100 million.
As of Wednesday, more than 407,000 New Yorkers had tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Of that total, which includes people who have recovered from the virus, more than 32,000 have died, according to figures provided by the New York Times.
New York has three times as many cases as New Jersey, the state with the second-most confirmed cases at more than 181,000. As the state is the domestic epicenter of the virus, residents need resources to combat the pandemic, Suozzi said.
Suozzi touted Schumer’s work on repealing the cap on state and local taxes and prioritizing the well-being of New York families.
“The cap on SALT deductions has been a body blow to New York families,” Suozzi said. “Senator Schumer is once again demonstrating how he always fights for Long Island and New York families.”
