This week, pursuant to his comments, Congressman Josh Gottheimer provided Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin with details regarding legal authority supporting his Tax Cut Plan that provides tax credits to taxpayers who make contributions to benefit community areas — such as schools, hospitals, and public safety. Mnuchin had earlier made comments indicating he was not familiar with the authority.

In his letter, Gottheimer noted that the key elements of his Tax Cut Plan has been supported by many of the nation’s top tax law professors, and the IRS, and been implemented by 30 other states in 100 similar programs across the country.

The group of prominent tax law professors recently affirmed that the Gottheimer Tax Cut Plan is consistent with “a correct and long-standing trans-substantive principle of federal tax law.”

In his letter to Secretary Mnuchin, Congressman Gottheimer wrote, “Tax credit programs of the kind described in the Tax Cut Plan have been used for more than 30 years, and there are already over 100 similar credits in place, adopted in over 30 states… The ink on the tax bill is hardly dry; if Congress had intended to eliminate these well-known programs, it surely would have included language to that effect in the law.”

Rep. Gottheimer continued, “[A] New Yorker and Californian yourself, you should know better than most about the high taxes in New York, New Jersey, and other states. We should all look for any way to cut taxes and make life more affordable for our people and businesses.”

The Gottheimer Tax Cut plan provides for towns to provide a state or local tax credit for charitable contributions made to support public services, from law enforcement to schools. Such contributions would be tax deductible as charitable contributions under federal law. The recently enacted Tax Hike Bill gutted the state and local tax deduction, or SALT, sharply limiting New Jersey’s property tax deductions, imposing a massive tax hike on the state’s families and businesses.

Gottheimer will continue to fight for New Jersey families and small businesses and is eagerly awaiting a response from Mnuchin.

To view the full letter, click here.

To view the Tax Cut Plan, click here.