ADVERTISEMENT

Trump, New York Governor Cuomo to Meet on State, Local Tax Break

Trump, New York Governor Cuomo to Meet on State, Local Tax Break

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will meet Tuesday to discuss a change in the 2017 tax law that limits how much a taxpayer can deduct for state and local taxes from the IRS bills, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

Democrats and some Republicans in high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California have been pushing to repeal the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes, or SALT, a tax break that was unlimited until the 2017 tax-code overhaul. Many taxpayers in those states are now able to write off only a fraction of what they previously could.

Trump said last week he was “open to talking about" changes to the SALT cap. He said that some “people from New York” had talked with him about how the tax change was hurting them.

Senate Republicans quickly shot down the president’s comments. The Senate Finance Committee released a statement that said the SALT cap would not be addressed in the Senate and that it’s “ironic” that Democrats criticized the bill for giving too much to the rich and are now advocating for a change that they say would help the wealthy.

Revenue collection in New York, one of the states most affected by the SALT changes, was down by $2.3 billion than what was predicted for December and January, the state said last week. Cuomo blamed the shortfall on wealthy residents leaving for second homes in Florida and other states that received more favorable treatment in the tax overhaul.

“To me, there is no more vital long-term issue for the state from a financial point of view than SALT,” Cuomo said in a statement. “It has created two different tax structures in this country. And it has created a preferential tax structure in Republican states” because the states with the highest state and local taxes tend to be run by Democrats.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Davison in Washington at ldavison4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, John Harney

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.