One Year In, the Working Families Tax Cuts Are Delivering for America’s Seniors

Op-Ed by Congressman Mike Lawler

One year ago, President Trump and Republicans delivered on a promise to America’s seniors. Republicans passed the Working Families Tax Cuts, ensuring that our seniors would have greater financial security. Twelve months later, that promise has become a reality for tens of millions of older Americans.

For decades, retirees spent a lifetime paying into Social Security but still faced an unfair reality: the benefits they had already earned were still subject to income taxes. President Trump promised to change that – and he did. The Working Families Tax Cuts provides a new bonus deduction of $6,000 for seniors age 65 and older ($12,000 for married seniors). This amounts to the largest tax break in American history for our nation’s seniors. The new deduction is on top of the standard deduction and the current-law additional deduction for seniors. The law also increases and permanently extends the standard deduction and many other provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that were otherwise scheduled to expire after this year, resulting in significant ongoing savings for most taxpayers.

I am extremely proud to have fought to raise the SALT deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000 to provide meaningful tax relief for seniors and families across the Hudson Valley and New York, where property taxes are among the highest in the nation. By quadrupling the deduction cap, the law allows homeowners to deduct more of the state and local taxes they already pay, helping ease the financial burden on middle-class families and ensuring they can keep more of their hard-earned money.

As we mark the law’s first anniversary, more than 30 million seniors claimed this deduction, with the average tax break exceeding $7,500. In addition, Americans received more than $82 billion in individual tax relief, with 97 percent of tax filers receiving a tax cut. Nearly 70 percent of taxpayers claiming the signature Working Families Tax Cuts deduction earned less than $100,000 annually, demonstrating that these savings are reaching everyday American workers, just as President Trump promised.

America’s seniors built this country through sacrifice and perseverance, and now, because of Republicans and President Trump, they will be able to spend their retirement years paying less in taxes and enjoying greater financial security. Just as our Founders believed that Americans flourish when the government taxes less of their hard-earned income, today’s No Tax on Social Security relief reflects that same principle by giving seniors greater freedom.

As our nation celebrates the first anniversary of this landmark law, millions of American seniors in my district and across the country are benefiting from the Working Families Tax Cuts.