Faso Issues Statement on IRS Ruling Concerning Charitable Tax Deductions

Statement

Congressman John Faso (R-Kinderhook) today issued a statement in response to the Internal Revenue Service's ruling on state tax changes approved by the state of New York and numerous other states to convert some state and local tax payments to payments that might be eligible for the charitable tax deduction under federal law:

"The partial elimination of the state and local tax deduction was the primary reason I voted against the tax bill. Due to numerous questions from constituents and tax professionals, I asked for the IRS to clarify the treatment of proposed workarounds enacted in Albany. That's my job as a member of congress. Taxpayers deserve to know how the IRS would treat these workarounds, and merely hoping that the IRS would approve the Cuomo plan was not a responsible stance. Now that the IRS has ruled, the state of New York needs to get to work reducing our high tax burden."

Representative Faso initially sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy to ask for an opinion in February 2018. At that time, the changes to state tax policy had only been proposed in the Governor's budget. Rep. Faso followed up in April 2018 after the state government approved the changes.

Representative Faso voted against the federal tax reform proposal due to the changes to the state and local tax deduction that were eventually included in the final bill.

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