RELEASE: Gottheimer Fights to Pass SALT Cap Expansion in the House

Doubles SALT Deduction Now

Full SALT Deduction Restored in 22 Months

Above: Gottheimer in front of a salt pile fighting to pass SALT relief for Jersey families.

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Today, February 12, 2024, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer announced new steps he’s taking to lower taxes for Jersey families and restore the State and Local Tax Deduction. 

Video from today’s announcement can be found here.

Gottheimer Action to Provide SALT Relief for Jersey:

1. This week, Congressman Gottheimer sent a letter to the Ways and Means Committee emphasizing the importance of raising the SALT cap now, and voting  on the House floor for the SALT Marriage Penalty Elimination Act. That bill will end the marriage penalty and double the SALT deduction from $10,000 to $20,000 for the 2023 tax year.
2. In preparation for the House voting on SALT legislation, last week, during a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Gottheimer directly urged the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, to ensure that the IRS is ready to process the increased 2023 SALT deduction during this tax filing season.
   • Yellen also agreed that families from states like New Jersey have had to bear the burden of the SALT provision in the 2017 Tax Hike Bill.

3. Gottheimer also highlighted that doubling SALT from $10,000 to $20,000 is not acceptable for a long-term solution. When the 2017 Tax Hike Bill expires at the end of 2024, Gottheimer will fight to ensure the full SALT deduction is returned in full for the 2025 tax year.

“Anyone who lives in Jersey knows that when a winter storm is coming, you’ve got to salt the roads. That’s the best way to stop you from slipping and sliding in a storm. Ahead of tomorrow’s snowstorm, Jersey families don’t just need salt for their roads, they also need more SALT for their pocketbooks.  the tax man coming in April, there would be no better way to lower taxes for Jersey families than to restore the State and Local Tax Deduction. And it starts with a vote this week on legislation in Congress,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “The vote this week will double the deduction for 2023 tax year from $10,000 to $20,000 a family. It is a down payment on our way to fully restoring the full deduction in 2025. When the 2017 Tax Hike Bill expires at the end of 2024, the SALT deduction will come back in full for the 2025 tax year – and then we can get the whole SALT shaker back. It will be just like before 2017. No more double taxation.”

Gottheimer was joined by Bergen County Commissioners Chairwoman Germaine Ortiz and Rafael Marte and Ridgewood Mayor Paul Vagianos.

Below: Gottheimer in front of a salt pile fighting to pass SALT relief for Jersey families.

Gottheimer remarks as prepared for delivery:

Good afternoon, Ridgewood and thank you Mayor and Commissioners – all good champions of affordability and lower taxes. Speaking of champions, that was some Superbowl last night – hats off to the Chiefs. But watch out, no threepeats here – next year, it’s time for the Giants!

Now, you may be wondering why we’re standing here with this mountain of salt behind us. Anyone who lives in Jersey knows that when a winter storm is coming, you’ve got to salt the roads. That’s the best way to stop you from slipping and sliding in a storm.

Ahead of tomorrow’s snowstorm, Jersey families don’t just need salt for their roads, they also need more SALT for their pocketbooks. With the tax man coming in April, there would be no better way to lower taxes for Jersey families than to restore the State and Local Tax Deduction. And it starts with a vote this week on legislation in Congress.

That’s why I’m here today in Ridgewood, to discuss the critical importance of passing that SALT bill this week – and the efforts I’m taking to encourage all of my colleagues in the House to vote for it. The vote this week will double the deduction for 2023 tax year from $10,000 to $20,000 a family. It is a down payment on our way to fully restoring the full deduction in 2025 – just twenty-two months from now. It will stop double taxation and make life more affordable for millions of hard-working middle-class Jersey families – for teachers, for nurses, for police and firefighters, for the men and women of labor.

For the last six years, since the Red Moocher States jammed through the 2017 Tax Hike Bill, and jacked up our taxes for their benefit, Jersey families have been dealing with a tax storm. And there’s one way to help fix it – we need to get our State and Local Tax Deduction – or SALT – back, to help lower taxes.

If you’re just tuning into this issue: the SALT deduction has been around since 1913, helping our families avoid double taxation for more than a hundred years. You see, before you pay your federal taxes, you can deduct what you paid in state income and local property taxes. Before the 2017 cap, you could deduct everything you paid – avoiding double taxation. The average SALT deduction taken in New Jersey was $19,000, nearly double the current cap. The deduction put thousands of dollars back into the pockets of Jersey’s middle-income families.

Then, with the 2017 Tax Hike Bill, the Red States gutted SALT, putting a $10,000 cap on that deduction. It was the Red States versus the Blue States. The T-Birds versus the Scorpions. They wanted us to pay their bills.

When I voted “No” on that 2017 Tax Hike Bill, we all predicted that it would raise Jersey’s taxes and drive residents and jobs out of our state. Well guess what? It’s done just that. After moochers gutted, middle class families in Sussex, Bergen, and Passaic Counties paid anywhere from $2,500 to $14,000 or more in taxes.

And over the last two years, more than 312,000 residents moved out of Jersey. One-third of the state’s publicly traded companies left over the last decade. We are now hemorrhaging people and businesses, and the jobs and investments that come with them. In fact, Jersey ranks eighth in outmigration in the entire country, with families and businesses citing affordability and taxes as their chief reasons for departing.

It was a direct hit on the Blue States — our taxes went up, and our middle class and programs for harder-pressed, lower income families suffered. That’s why we’ve fought for years to bring the full SALT deduction back. I helped pass it out of the House four times since 2017, just to watch the Red Moocher States kill it in the Senate every time.

And let me be clear: Here in Jersey, the State and Local Tax Deduction is a middle-class issue. It’s not just something for the well to do.

In North Jersey, our property taxes are around the highest in the country. The median property tax here in Bergen County is more than $15,000. When you add state income taxes, the average SALT deduction in 2017 was more than $24,000 dollars. I mean, this isn’t Oklahoma, where the median property tax is around $1,600 — or Alabama, where the median property tax is just $740.

That’s why today, I’m announcing new action to bring immediate SALT relief to families right now, and discuss how we’ll get the full deduction back in fewer than twenty-two months.

First, today, I’m sending a letter to the Ways and Means Committee emphasizing the importance of raising the SALT cap now, and voting this week on the House floor for the SALT Marriage Penalty Elimination Act. That bill will end the marriage penalty and double the SALT deduction from $10,000 to $20,000 for the 2023 tax year. Yes, that’s for last year – and money Jersey families could get back when they file their taxes as soon as this April. It’s a great down payment on our way to getting the full SALT deduction back in 2025. This bill chips away at the SALT block.

Second, in preparation for the House voting on SALT legislation this week, last week, during a House Financial Services Committee hearing, I directly urged the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, to ensure that the IRS is ready to process the increased 2023 SALT deduction during this tax filing season. It will be a heavy lift, but our families deserve the immediate tax relief. The Secretary agreed that families from states like ours have had to bear the burden of the SALT provision in the 2017 Tax Hike Bill, when the Moocher States stuck it to us.

Third, and let me be clear: doubling SALT from $10,000 to $20,000 is not acceptable for a long term solution. I’ll take it now, since the Red States appear willing to give us something. But, I refused to do a long-term deal at this level, as some had proposed. The way I see it, while the far-right is in charge, why not take one grain of SALT? When the 2017 Tax Hike Bill expires at the end of 2024, the SALT deduction will come back in full for the 2025 tax year – and then we can get the whole SALT shaker back. It will be just like before 2017. No more double taxation.

Nearly a third of New Jersey residents — almost three million people — will get tax relief. Eighty percent have incomes of $216,000 or less. In New Jersey, this is a middle-class issue.

Finally, like you, I love Jersey. We have so much going for us, from our schools and workforce to our beaches and the Boss. But it’s too expensive for our families and small businesses. We have to make life more affordable. Restoring SALT will get more dollars back into the pockets of hard-working families who are already struggling with higher costs.

On all fronts, I’ll keep fighting every day in Congress for lower taxes for our families and small businesses, and to make life more affordable for Jersey. I’ll keep working with Democrats and Republicans to get the SALT relief our families so badly need. And I’m optimistic that, if we work together, we can get there.

In the greatest country in the world, I know that if we work together, our best days will always be ahead of us.

Thank you. God bless you, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.

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