BAY RIDGE — SENIOR CITIZENS AT THE BAY RIDGE CENTER AND Congressmember Nicole Malliotakis on the morning of Monday, May 12, rallied support to reduce taxes on their Social Security income. The congressmember is pushing to raise the state and local tax deductions cap from $10,000 to $30,000 – a move opposed by some Republican colleagues – and to provide a bonus deduction of $4,000 for seniors earning less than $75,000.
As a member of the House Ways & Means Committee, Malliotakis has played a key role in negotiations over the federal budget, and is working to build momentum in Washington to pass the GOP’s tax bill. The Ways & Means Committee is scheduled to meet this week for a markup of the bill text — a critical step toward advancing it through Congress.
Rep. Malliotakis is also sponsoring other measures to ease the burden on seniors, including the “Tax Relief Unleashed for Seniors by Trump” (TRUST) Act, which would increase the amount of income that is tax exempt and index the threshold to inflation.
And Malliotakis’ “Reducing Excessive Taxation and Inefficiencies by Reforming Elder Exemptions to Support Fairness, Inflation Relief, and Simpler Taxes” Act (RETIREES FIRST Act) aims to modernize outdated Social Security tax thresholds to deliver tax relief to middle-class retirees.
Today, nearly 56% of retirees pay taxes on their Social Security benefits, compared to less than 10% in 1984 when the Social Security exemptions were first established, according to Malliotakis’ office.
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