Sponsors (2)
The bill increases SALT relief and reduces a marriage‑status penalty for joint filers, providing meaningful tax relief to many married households while shrinking federal revenue and concentrating benefits in high‑tax states while leaving separate filers with smaller gains.
Married couples filing jointly will be able to claim a doubled SALT deduction cap and benefit from a 200% MAGI phaseout threshold, lowering federal tax liability for many married households and allowing higher‑earning married couples to retain the deduction longer.
The bill clarifies per‑status SALT limits and removes a marriage‑status penalty that previously caused filing‑status distortions, making tax treatment more explicit and consistent across filing statuses.
Raising the SALT cap for joint filers will reduce federal revenue, which could widen deficits or force future spending cuts or tax increases to offset the loss.
The benefit is concentrated among taxpayers in high‑tax states and homeowners there, producing an uneven, regionally skewed distribution of the tax cut.
People who file married filing separately remain limited to 50% of the baseline cap, so those who file separately (for privacy, legal, or other reasons) will continue to receive a smaller tax benefit.
Based on analysis of 1 section of legislative text.
Makes the SALT deduction cap and income phase-out explicitly scale by filing status: single = baseline, married joint = 200%, married separate = 50%.
Official title: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to eliminate the State and local tax deduction marriage penalty.
Introduced July 9, 2026 by Josh S. Gottheimer · Last progress July 9, 2026
Changes the federal State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction limits so the dollar cap and income threshold scale by filing status. The 2026 baseline limit and MAGI threshold apply to single filers, married joint filers receive twice those amounts, and married filing separately filers receive half. The change eliminates the implicit "marriage penalty" in current law by making the scaling explicit in statute. The amendment takes effect for tax years beginning after December 31, 2026.