Trump’s cap on tax deductions is unfair and hurts Californians

A petty tax injustice is close to getting erased, but only if the middle class can avoid being mistakenly labeled “rich” and undeserving.

Let me explain. Remember the longtime federal tax break on state and local taxes that was gutted four years ago by President Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress?

It may be largely restored as part of President Biden’s and the Democrats’ $1.85-trillion social safety net bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes to bring to a vote this week in the U.S. House.

Before the Trump-GOP butchery, we could deduct all state income and local property taxes on federal returns.

But Trump and Republicans placed a $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes, called SALT in government speak. Prior to that, the average SALT deduction in California exceeded $18,400.

The state Franchise Tax Board reported that in 2018, the SALT cap cost Californians $12 billion. The Washingtonbased Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has estimated that in 2022, the SALT cap hit on Californians will be $33 billion if the law isn’t changed.

Why was it enacted in the first place? Two reasons.

The higher federal revenue from personal income taxes was needed to pay for corporate tax cuts.

For Trump and the GOP, the cap also was a stinging jab at high-tax blue states led by Democrats — states such as New York, New Jersey and California.

Then-Gov. Jerry Brown didn’t waste words, charging that Republican congressional leaders were “wielding their power like a bunch of Mafia thugs.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom and six other Democratic governors sent Biden a letter in April urging him to “undo the cap.”

The middle class is at the center of the dispute. Some liberal lawmakers and think tanks contend that repealing the cap would be an unwarranted giveaway to the rich and of little benefit to the middle class.

Nonsense. But forget about a total repeal.

House Democrats, led by New Jersey members and including California Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, are pushing to raise the cap. The latest target is $80,000.

But even if that higher cap passes the House, it almost certainly will be changed in the Senate.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the Budget Committee chairman, has said the House proposal is too tailored for the rich and “is unacceptable.”

Sanders and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., have proposed eliminating the cap entirely for taxpayers earning less than $400,000. Above that income, the $10,000 cap would be phased back in.

Falling in the top 20% of California earners hardly means that a family is rich. It can hit that mark with pay of about $110,000, says the state Franchise Tax Board based on 2019 data, the latest available. You’re in the top 5% with family earnings of about $270,000 — very comfortable, but not exactly mega-rich in high-cost California.

A SALT change wouldn’t benefit just rich Californians. It would benefit many middle-class taxpayers too.

The state Finance Department analyzed what an $80,000 cap would mean for Californians. It calculated that 2.3 million taxpayers would potentially benefit by being allowed to deduct an additional $43 billion. Of those taxpayers, 1.3 million earn less than $175,000. Their deductions would increase by $9 billion.

“It’s pretty clear from the data that a SALT change doesn’t solely benefit the richer class,” Finance Department spokesman H.D. Palmer says. “Hundreds of thousands of California taxpayers whose incomes fall far below the top of the heap would benefit.”

Revamping SALT “may impact wealthy people more, but middle-income people benefit as well,” says Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), who long has pushed for lifting the cap.

“I think we’ll get something. It’s not soup yet. It’s still cooking.”

Almost anything would taste better than what’s being served now.