The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)—passed in 2017 during the first Trump administration—wasn't really a tax cut in practice. It ended up functionally raising taxes on a lot of people.
While it did lower marginal income tax rates across the board, reducing the top rate from 39.6 percent to 37 percent, it also capped the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) at $10,000 annually. SALT includes income taxes, of course, but also property taxes, so the new cap hit taxpayers in high-tax states like New York, New Jersey, and California particularly hard. Even in states without income taxes, where property taxes are frequently higher, many people saw their tax bills increase because they could no longer fully deduct these expenses.
