President Donald Trump's tax overhaul plan was short on specifics, but one proposal was clear enough to draw howls from residents of high-tax states. The plan would end deductions of state and local taxes from federal income taxes. Those are by far the biggest deductions for many taxpayers.
"There is no doubt that if you are a New York or California resident, your largest deduction, by a factor that could be as high as 10, is the state and local income tax," said tax expert Robert Willens, of New York-based Robert Willens LLC. "Historically a high-state tax was mitigated by the fact that you were able to deduct it, so it was really costing you 60 percent or 65 percent of what you were paying to the state."
“New Jersey taxpayers would lose under that plan,” New Jersey Republican Congressman Leonard Lance said in a statement, saying he supported some parts of Trump’s tax plan but opposed eliminating the state and local tax deduction. “I will be a leading voice in negotiations for maintaining that deduction.”
