(Elsewhere, inflation adjustments mean tiny decreases). We asked Wolter Kluwer's CCH division to calculate the tax bill for a married couple with $1 million in salary, two children and $110,000 in itemized deductions, living in the largest city in each state.
Advocates worry more about the small but steady decline in real benefits since 1996, when the "standard deduction" for living costs, which is subtracted from family income to determine eligibility and benefit levels, was frozen.
Some tax experts have gone so far as to say it's a conservative Trojan horse, a stealth tactic that protects the very wealthy while targeting Democrats who itemize deductions and live disproportionately in high-tax states like New York and California.
Many tax experts say that the area most in need of reform is the alternative minimum tax, which no longer applies to the people it was designed for, wealthy individuals who make aggressive use of tax shelters and deductions to live tax free.
His first major article as a professor, "Business Deduction for Personal Living Expenses: A Uniform Approach to an Unsolved Problem," 122 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 859 (1974), remains a classic 40 years later.
Recently, for example, it told the government to reinstate a tax deduction for commuters who live near their jobs, one of a number of tax rulings that is causing the finance minister heartburn.
Owners still receive the charitable tax deduction while they are living, and depending on the property and its income potential, they may even be able to get lifetime annuity.
In recent days, the prospect that the tax bill might eliminate the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, which benefits those living in high-taxed areas, led to a revolt by Republicans from these (mostly blue) states.
"When they were making deductions I was living on an income the government said was below the minimum poverty level," she says.
Many of the people who take advantage of the deductions at risk live along the coast, including constituents of several Southern California Republicans.
