Donald Trump vows to restore homeowner tax break he scrapped

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Donald Trump has said he will reverse a pillar of his 2017 tax reform, as he courts suburban voters in Democratic strongholds such as New York and California with less than two months to go until November’s presidential election.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, the former president said he had a “real chance of winning” New York’s 28 Electoral College votes in November, and vowed to “get Salt back” and “lower your taxes”.

The comments were a reference to a long-standing practice where households were able to deduct their state and local taxes, or “salt”, including on property, from their federal tax bills.

But Trump’s own 2017 tax changes — which slashed taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals — capped those deductions at $10,000 a year, in a blow to homeowners in high-tax cities and towns where local property taxes can average twice that level.

Now Trump has suggested he will make a U-turn on those changes, expanding the scope of the already huge tax cuts he is promising on the campaign trail.

Trump has in recent weeks promised to erase taxes on tips, overtime pay and government pension benefits, in addition to cutting the corporate tax rate to 15 per cent from 21 per cent and extending the individual income tax cuts he enacted in 2017.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The “Salt cap” had traditionally been backed by many Republicans because it was widely seen as punishing Democratic voters in traditionally blue states.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat and one of two US senators from New York, said: “I have always been for eliminating the cap on Salt. I think it was a nasty piece of legislation supported by Donald Trump aimed at the blue states.”

Trump’s promise — which could cost $1.2tn over a decade, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget think-tank — came on the eve of a campaign rally on Long Island, about 30 miles, or roughly 50km, east of Manhattan.

The suburban sprawl surrounding New York City has some of the highest property tax rates in the country.

New York is not seen as a battleground state, and Trump lost it to Joe Biden in the 2020 election by more than 23 percentage points. A Siena College poll of likely voters in New York conducted over the summer gave Kamala Harris a 14-point lead over Trump in the state.

But congressional races in the New York suburbs could be critical for Republicans if they are to maintain control of the House of Representatives.

Voter concerns about crime and public safety helped Republicans flip four Democratic congressional seats in New York state in the 2022 midterms, helping the party regain control of the chamber.

Democrats recaptured one seat in a special election this year after the departure of Republican George Santos, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identify theft.

Democrats insisted on Tuesday that Trump’s latest offer would do little to win him votes in New York.

“Donald Trump took away your Salt deductions and hurt so many Long Island families. Now, he’s coming to Long Island to pretend he supports Salt,” Schumer said in a post on X. “It won’t work.”

Mondaire Jones, a Democrat fighting Mike Lawler in a Republican congressional district that includes suburban areas north of Manhattan, said voters should not “fall for [Trump’s] lie”.

“Donald Trump and Mike Lawler, who helped elect him, are the reason we even have a limitation on the Salt deduction,” Jones said on X.

Lawler said he was “glad” Trump had committed to lifting the cap and “look[ed] forward to getting this done”.

Even if Trump were to be elected president in November, he would need backing for any tax changes from Congress.

Despite the efforts of some Democratic politicians to scrap the cap on deductions, the issue has divided the party, with many lawmakers on the left wary of providing giveaways to wealthy Americans. Republicans are similarly split on the issue.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates 92 per cent of benefits from reinstating unlimited Salt deductions would go to the top 10 per cent of US earners.