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Schumer predicts Trump tax plan will hurt New Yorkers

May 1, 2017 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Sen. Charles Schumer says reducing state and local tax deductions “would be brutally unfair and hit New York homeowners right between the eyes.” Eagle file photo by Bill Kotsatos
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U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer charged that President Donald Trump’s proposed overhaul of the nation’s tax system is so weighted heavily toward the wealthy at the expense of the middle class that it will wind up hurting New Yorkers.

“President Trump’s plan includes massive tax cuts for the very wealthy, and crumbs — at best — for everyone else,” Schumer said in a statement on Sunday.

Following the release of Trump’s tax plan, Schumer (D-New York) said he would fight to preserve the state and local property tax deductions that would be eliminated under the President’s proposal.

“Taking away or even reducing the state and local tax deductions would be brutally unfair and hit New York homeowners right between the eyes. This is the wrong thing to do if we are serious about helping to build and expand the middle class,” Schumer stated.

Under Trump’s plan, “the top rate would come down, taxes that disproportionately affect the very wealthy would go away, while middle-class and working families would be denied some of the most frequently used deductions: the state and local tax deduction,” said Schumer, who added that he will “use my clout in the Senate to fight all efforts that would roll back the state and local property tax deductions.”

Under the current federal tax system, taxpayers who itemize deductions on their federal income tax returns can deduct state and local real estate and personal property taxes.

Schumer also charged that eliminating the deductions would hurt middle-class and working-class New York residents more than residents in any other state, given the high local cost of owning a home here. 

Trump’s tax overhaul plan, introduced by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn on April 26, calls for the creation of a simpler tax code in which the number of tax brackets for individuals would be reduced from seven to three. Taxpayers would fall into one of three categories: 10 percent, 25 percent or 35 percent, depending on their income. The standard deduction would double, but many other deductions would be eliminated.

The corporate tax rate would be slashed from 35 percent to 15 percent.

Getting rid of state and local tax deductions would be detrimental to middle-class families, according to Schumer, who said the loss of the deduction would cost New York City residents an average of $5,500 per year.

And across New York state, the deduction loss would total approximately $68 billion a year, or an average tax increase of $4,500 per New Yorker, he stated.

 

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