With the skyrocketing cost of housing, prescription drugs, gasoline, and child care, families in Orange County need tax fairness. 

Congresswoman Porter is working hard to save Orange County families money. As one of the only single parents of young children in Congress, she understands firsthand the increasing costs of raising a family in today’s economy. Throughout her time in Congress, she has worked to reverse the unfair state and local taxes (SALT) deduction cap, eliminate unfair tax burdens on single parents, and get the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) functioning for American taxpayers.

The Trump tax law enacted in 2018 capped the SALT deduction at $10,000 a year, meaning many families have had to pay taxes twice on the income they earn. Before the Trump tax law, Orange County families were able to fully deduct property taxes and other state taxes from their income—meaning it was untaxed at the federal level. That changed with the Trump tax overhaul.

Porter compiled data in 2019 showing that nearly half of taxpayers in her district used the SALT deduction, with an average deduction of more than $22,000 per household. The SALT deduction cap meant that many middle class families had higher tax bills in 2018 and have continued to see their taxes go up. What’s worse, the Trump tax bill imposes a marriage penalty. While unmarried individuals can each file for $10,000 worth of SALT deductions—totaling $20,000 worth of deductions—a married couple can only claim $10,000.

Congresswoman Porter introduced the Supporting Americans with Lower Taxes (SALT) Act to restore the state and local tax deduction for Americans making less than $400,000 a year. Restoring the SALT deduction will provide immediate relief for middle class families residing in places with high costs of living, such as Orange County. To prevent abuse by the ultra-wealthy, Americans making between $400,000 and $1 million can deduct some state and local taxes per year, while those making above $1 million cannot deduct any. This bill provides tax certainty and generates revenue for the federal government, as the existing SALT cap expires in 2028 for all Americans regardless of income.

Congresswoman Porter is committed to conducting rigorous oversight to see that the IRS is serving taxpayers. Through her role as the Vice Chair of the House’s Oversight and Reform Government Operations Subcommittee, she is leading the charge to make the IRS address its massive backlog of unprocessed tax returns, because she knows many families and small businesses cannot wait additional months to receive the money they are owed. American taxpayers deserve an effective government that they can trust is working for them. As a staunch advocate for fixing what is broken with government, Congresswoman Porter has led the effort to equip the IRS with the resources it needs to go after tax cheats—big corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals that scam taxpayers out of up to $1 trillion a year. 

She’s also standing up to Wall Street and special interests to hold the ultra-wealthy accountable for paying their fair share of taxes. For too long, Wall Street bankers have exploited a gap in our tax code called the “carried interest loophole” that allows them to be taxed at a lower rate than all other wage earners. That’s why Congresswoman Porter helped introduce legislation to end this abuse. She also sponsored the Ending Taxpayer Welfare for Oil and Gas Companies Act to stop Big Oil from ripping off taxpayers and sticking them with the cost of cleaning up the pollution they create. Big corporations should not be able to game the tax system at the expense of middle class families who follow the rules.