Legislation to Avoid SALT Cap Named Bad Bill of the Week
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Legislation to Avoid SALT Cap Named Bad Bill of the Week
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Providence, RI— Rhode Island lawmakers continue to stick their heads in the sand when it comes to the stagnant Rhode Island economy and weakening jobs market. Instead of directly addressing the core issues that are producing these negative outcomes, which run counter to positive national trends, the political class prefers to divert attention to band-aid policies that perpetuate the problem.
It is for this reason that H5576, the so-called Business Corporation Tax legislation, has been named the Bad Bill of the Week by the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity. The legislation seeks to provide small business owners with a dubious option to avoid the $10,000 SALT (State And Local Tax) cap, defined in the 2017 federal tax reforms.
Ignoring the fact that state and local taxes are too high in Rhode Island, driving many people and businesses out of state, the legislation instead seeks to help small business owners by reducing the their federal tax burden; in essence, denying the federal government its lawful share of pass-through revenues that are usually associated with S-corporations, limited partnerships, and sole proprietorships.
State lawmakers should not seek to blame the federal government for the high state and local taxes that they, themselves, have imposed on the private sector. Further, the IRS has publicly signaled that it will not take kindly to state-based efforts to interfere with taxes owed to the federal government.
This legislation is objectionable for two main reasons. First, the IRS is unlikely to allow this sleight-of-hand to circumvent existing tax law. Second, and more importantly, the legislation avoids the actual core problem – high state and local taxes in Rhode Island.
Even the highly respected and nonpartisan Tax Foundation in Washington, DC, wrote a post on the wrong-headedness of this legislation, which seeks to circumvent federal tax laws.
Other Bad Bills: An interactive table of other progressive bad bill candidates, as well as posts and video commentary on previously tabbed “progressive bad bills of the week” can be found at RIFreedom.org/Bills2019.
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