Stateline: States Look at Axing ‘Double Deduction’ Tax Break

No one is sure how and where the tax break originated. It’s not like many other kinds of deductions, which were prompted by particular public policy goals, such as the home mortgage interest deduction that was instituted to encourage home ownership.

“I think it’s a strange and pointless deduction,” said Carl Davis, a senior analyst with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-partisan research organization. “It’s basically an accident. It exists because states coupled their taxes to the federal. The vast majority of states don’t allow the (second) state and local tax deduction.”

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