Trump's tax reversal punctuates a flurry of freebies defining the 2024 election
As president, Donald Trump slashed a lucrative tax break enjoyed by coastal donors and suburban swing-state voters. Now, he's promising to give back the deduction — if only they will put him back in the Oval Office.
WASHINGTON — As president, Donald Trump slashed a lucrative tax break enjoyed by coastal donors and suburban swing-state voters. Now, he's promising to give back the deduction — if only they will put him back in the Oval Office.
Trump aides say he isn't ransoming a hostage or even flip-flopping on the $10,000 annual limit he placed on the federal deduction taxpayers can claim based on their state and local taxes — the "SALT cap," in Washington talk. Instead, a campaign official said, Trump is responding to new economic realities as he pursues a "two track" solution. The first is promoting pro-growth policies, and the second is adopting tax positions that would allow people to keep more of their money.
What shifted more than the economy is Trump's needs, said Caroline Bruckner, managing director of American University's Kogod Tax Policy Center.
"The change in the limitation on the deductibility of state and local taxes was an easy play to target revenue flowing to blue states," Bruckner said of the 2017 law, which used the SALT cap as a budget offset to pay for other tax cuts. "Now it appears that higher-income taxpayers in swing states have been able to successfully plead their case to Trump."
The reversal is one of a flurry of freebies that Trump and his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, are offering voters in the stretch run before Election Day. Together, they are promising the equivalent of a tax break in every pot.
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