[bko]

Is there any reason there shouldn't be a cap on state and local tax deductions (SALT) from the federal tax, apart from it affect people more in blue (high cost) states?

Why should the federal government subsidize high state and local taxes? It obviously most benefits the wealthy who are well above the current SALT cap. The standard deduction is already pretty high, ~25k for married couple. And if you're paying that much in state and local taxes, you're pretty well off.

[bink]

$25k in California is very different from $25k in Oklahoma. For this to be fair it would need to be adjusted for the COL in each region.

Regions with higher taxes also tend to have higher populations and more dense populations and provide more social services. And regions with more dense populations also tend to vote for one party over the other. It was pretty clear to most that this was aimed solely at punishing one party over the other, which to me is enough to support its repeal.

But beyond all that, do we support double taxation or not? I think most people would say it's unfair to tax someone on income they derived no value from (beyond the social services aspect).

[bko]

> $25k in California is very different from $25k in Oklahoma. For this to be fair it would need to be adjusted for the COL in each region.

So someone in Oklahoma should pay more federal taxes that someone in California ... why? California sets its own policies, whether its housing or the social services they provide, as does Oklahoma. Someone from OK does not benefit from CA policies that provide more social services, so why should they subsidize them?

> do we support double taxation or not?

I'm taxed on my income and I'm taxed again on sales tax and if i transfer above a certain amount I'm taxed again as a transfer or gift tax, and if I leave an estate I'm taxed again, and if I use it to buy a home, I'm taxed again...

If you're actually against double taxation, you should be against all of these taxes because you're being taxed on top of already taxed income.

[notreallyserio]

If OK doesn't provide the same level of services to its residents as does CA, and if the federal government has to step in instead (because people still need services), then yeah it stands to reason that OK residents ought to be willing to pay more to the feds.

[mister_tee]

One argument I've heard beyond "double-taxation" is that it allows state and local governments to more easily set higher income and property taxes than they otherwise could.

The deductibility of state and local taxes has been around since income tax was created in 1913, and almost all state and local taxes have passed under that old framework. That's not to say it has to be done that way forever.