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Americans Against Double Taxation

Location:

Washington, DC
Tax ID:

82-3063357
Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(4)

Budget (2018):

Expenses: $23,396
Assets: $55,024
Formation:

2017 2
Status:

Defunct
Co-Directors:

Bob Chlopak & Andrew Koneschusky

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Americans Against Double Taxation (AADT) was a front group for local government interest groups, government worker labor unions, and other interest groups that opposed the restricting the state and local tax deduction, better known as the SALT deduction, in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

It was unsuccessful in its efforts to protect the SALT deduction from being capped at $10,000 per year and received widespread criticism for being a vehicle for Democratic politicians in high-tax states to promote tax cuts for their wealthy constituents.

History and Policy

The state and local tax (SALT) deduction is a provision in federal tax law that allows taxpayers to reduce their federal income tax liabilities by deducting some of the state and local taxes they pay on their federal income tax returns. The left-leaning Tax Policy Center has characterized the SALT deduction as “an indirect federal subsidy to state and local governments by decreasing the net cost of nonfederal taxes to those who pay them” and said it “encourages state and local governments to levy higher taxes (and, presumably, provide more services) than they otherwise would.” 1

Americans Against Double Taxation was founded in 2017 by interest groups that benefit from high state and local government spending to oppose efforts to eliminate or cap the SALT deduction as part of a tax and fiscal policy reform package being developed by a Republican-controlled Congress and the administration of President Donald Trump. 2 AADT’s funding included $100,000 from American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and $15,000 from the International City County Management Association. 3 4

AADT’s predecessor was the Coalition Against Double Taxation, which was founded by then-New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (D-NY) and fought off a SALT cap or elimination during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. 5 6 One of the supporters of that coalition was then-New York City real estate developer Donald Trump, whose Trump Organization donated $60,000 to the pro-SALT coalition in 1986. 7

2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

At the time of Americans Against Double Taxation’s founding, 91 percent of the SALT deduction’s benefits were claimed by taxpayers with annual incomes of more than $100,000 in just six states: California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Texas, and Pennsylvania. 8 SALT deductions had grown into one of the largest categories of federal tax deductions, behind employer deductions for insurance premiums, the tax exclusion of pension contributions and earnings, and the tax rates for capital gains taxes and dividends. 9

To protect the SALT deduction from being eliminated or capped in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), AADT and its coalition members targeted their lobbying and public pressure campaigns at Republican lawmakers from high-tax states such as California and New York. This included media relations efforts, radio campaigns, lobbying, and social media advertising. 10 11 AADT spent a reported $46,250 in 2017 lobbying to protect the full SALT deduction. 12

Despite AADT’s efforts, the final version of the TCJA capped the SALT deduction at $10,000 per year of certain state and local taxes. 8 It passed the House by a vote of 227-205, with thirteen Republicans joining the entire Democratic caucus in voting against it, and was signed into law on December 22, 2017. 13 The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the TCJA’s SALT deduction cap would increase federal income tax revenues by $98.1 billion in 2020. 14

Leadership

Americans Against Double Taxation was managed by the Democratic Party-aligned lobbying firm CLS Strategies and co-directed by Democratic Party operatives Bob Chlopak and Andrew Koneschusky at the firm. 15

Chlopak is a former executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and had previously led Ralph Nader’s Public Interest Research Group and the Friends of the Earth. 16 17

Koneschusky had previously been Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) national press secretary, communications director for former U.S. Rep. and New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (D-NY), executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party, and deputy press secretary for Gov. Howard Dean’s (D-VT) 2004 presidential campaign. 18

A few years after CLS Strategies used online advertising campaigns for AADT’s campaign to create pressure on Republican members of the House of Representatives to vote against the SALT deduction, the firm’s digital advertising practices became the center of controversy after it was caught using inauthentic social media accounts in online campaigns. 19 In 2020, Facebook took down a “disinformation network” of fake accounts and pages run by the firm that included a reported 55 Facebook accounts, 42 Facebook pages and 36 Instagram accounts that were being used to influence elections in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Mexico. 20 21

Controversies

The AADT’s effort to fight the SALT deduction cap was part of what has been characterized as “one of the most persistent and pervasive lobbying campaigns of the tax reform story,” spanning decades across both Republican and Democratic administrations. 5

Observers note that it places nominally progressive Democratic legislators and interest groups on the side of protecting a tax deduction that largely benefits high-income taxpayers. 22 23 24 The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has described efforts to repeal or increase the SALT cap as “a baffling tax gift to the wealthy” by Democrats, and Jason Furman, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers for President Barack Obama, said on Twitter that repealing the 2017-enacted cap would be “obscene” and “would do more for the super-rich than it does for climate change, childcare or preschool.” 25

Similarly, fiscal policy analysts at the left-leaning Brookings Institution noted that while Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) regularly decried the Trump administration’s TCJA as “tax cuts for the rich,” Schumer’s later efforts to roll back the SALT cap as part of federal “COVID relief” efforts would result in a tax cut for the highest-income earners three times the size of the Trump-era cuts. 26

In 2019, a federal judge ruled against states that had sued the federal government to challenge the constitutionality of the TCJA’s SALT deduction cap. 27

Finances

According to its tax return from 2018, Americans Against Double Taxation had no revenue and spent $23,396. It had $55,024 in assets. 28 As of 2023, it had filed the IRS e-Postcard declaring less than $50,000 in gross receipts for each subsequent year through 2022, the most recent available. 29

Member Organizations

The mostly left-of-center member organizations of the coalition were: 30

References

  1. Lori Robertson, “The Facts on the Salt Deduction,” FactCheck.org, August 10, 2018, https://www.factcheck.org/2017/11/facts-salt-deduction/
  2. “Americans against Double Taxation Launches Campaign to Protect State and Local Tax Deduction.” National League of Cities, August 21, 2017. https://www.nlc.org/post/2017/09/21/americans-against-double-taxation-launches-campaign-to-protect-state-and-local-tax-deduction/.
  3. “FORM LM-2 LABOR ORGANIZATION ANNUAL REPORT,” OLMS, March 28, 2018, https://olmsapps.dol.gov/query/orgReport.do?rptId=748404&rptForm=LM2Form.
  4. “Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax,” International City County Management Association, 2018, https://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/362/362167755/362167755_201806_990.pdf.
  5. Thorndike, Joseph J. “Tax History: The Salt Deduction Has Always Been Hard to Defend – and to Kill.” Tax History Project, October 9, 2017. https://www.taxnotes.com/tax-history-project/tax-history-salt-deduction-has-always-been-hard-defend-and-kill/2017/10/06/1wftk.
  6. Stephen Mihm, “Even Reagan Couldn’t Kill This Tax Deduction,” ThinkAdvisor, August 4, 2017, https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2017/08/04/even-reagan-couldnt-kill-this-tax-deduction/.
  7. Ben Brody, “President Trump Funded Bid to Keep Tax Break That He Now Wants to End,” The Independent, October 12, 2017, https://www.independent.ie/business/commercial-property/president-trump-funded-bid-to-keep-tax-break-that-he-now-wants-to-end/36218401.html.
  8. “What Is the State and Local Tax (SALT) Deduction?,” Tax Foundation, accessed June 12, 2023, https://taxfoundation.org/tax-basics/salt-deduction/.
  9. Frank Sammartino and Kim Rueben, “Revisiting the State and Local Tax Deduction,” Tax Policy Center, March 31, 2016, https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2016/03/30/2000693-revisiting-the-state-and-local-tax-deduction.pdf.
  10. Vogel, Kenneth P., and Jim Tankersley. “With Billions at Stake in Tax Debate, Lobbyists Played Hardball.” The New York Times, December 15, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/us/politics/lobbyists-tax-overhaul-congress.html.
  11. Christine Mai-Duc, “More Political Groups Pressure California Republicans on Tax Bill,” Los Angeles Times, November 13, 2017, https://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-201711-htmlstory.html.
  12. Richard Lardner, “Lobbying Expenses Spiked as Congress Shaped Tax Overhaul,” PBS, February 10, 2018, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/lobbying-expenses-spiked-as-congress-shaped-tax-overhaul.
  13. “FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 637,” Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, November 16, 2017, https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2017/roll637.xml.
  14. Scott Greenberg, “Highlights from the New JCT Tax Expenditure Report,” Tax Foundation, May 29, 2018, https://taxfoundation.org/jct-tax-expenditure-report-2018/.
  15. Americans Against Double Taxation. “Americans against Double Taxation Launches Campaign to Protect State and Local Tax Deduction Claimed by 43 Million Taxpayers.” PR Newswire, September 21, 2017. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/americans-against-double-taxation-launches-campaign-to-protect-state-and-local-tax-deduction-claimed-by-43-million-taxpayers-300523811.html.
  16. Siegel, Barry. “Spin Doctors to the World: The Sawyer Miller Group Uses the Tricks of Political Campaigns to Change the Way You Think about Foreign Governments, Big Business and Any Client in Need of an Image Lift.” Los Angeles Times, November 24, 1991. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-11-24-tm-417-story.html.
  17. “Bob Chlopak – Managing Partner – Vision360 Partners | LinkedIn,” LinkedIn, accessed June 12, 2023, https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-chlopak-063b2772.
  18. “Andrew Koneschusky – Washington, District of Columbia – LinkedIn,” LinkedIn, accessed June 12, 2023, https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewkoneschusky.
  19. Timberg, Craig, and Elizabeth Dwoskin. “Washington Firm Ran Fake Facebook Accounts in Venezuela, Bolivia and Mexico, Report Finds.” The Washington Post, September 4, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/04/facebook-bolivia-cls/.
  20. Dwoskin, Elizabeth, and Craig Timberg. “Facebook Takes down Russian Operation That Recruited U.S. Journalists, amid Rising Concerns about Election Misinformation.” The Washington Post, September 1, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/01/facebook-disinformation-takedown/.
  21. “A US PR Firm Steps into Contested Elections,” Stanford Internet Observatory, September 4, 2020, https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/news/us-pr-firm-steps-contested-elections.
  22.  Marc Goldwein, “Perspective | There’s a Baffling Tax Gift to the Wealthy in the Democrats’ Social-Spending Bill,” The Washington Post, November 5, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/11/05/salt-tax-deduction-cap-wealthy-regressive/.
  23. Lindsey McPherson and Laura Weiss, “Democrats’ ‘salt’ Headache Hangs over Budget Reconciliation Bill,” Roll Call, November 17, 2021, https://rollcall.com/2021/11/16/democrats-salt-headache-hangs-over-budget-reconciliation-bill/.
  24. Abby Vesoulis, “Why This Tax Provision Puts Democrats in a Tough Place,” Time, December 16, 2021, https://time.com/6128775/salt-cap-democrats-divided/.
  25. Jason Furman, “My Guess Is the Majority of Americans with a Net Worth of $50 to $300 Million Would Get a Tax Cut under the Build Back Better Plan with a Full Repeal of SALT.The Bill Would Do More for the Super-Rich than It Does for Climate Change, Childcare or Preschool.That’s Obscene.,” Twitter, November 2, 2021, https://twitter.com/jasonfurman/status/1455624725367967746?s=20.
  26. Christopher Pulliam and Richard V. Reeves, “The Salt Tax Deduction Is a Handout to the Rich. It Should Be Eliminated Not Expanded,” Brookings, March 9, 2022, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/09/04/the-salt-tax-deduction-is-a-handout-to-the-rich-it-should-be-eliminated-not-expanded/.
  27. DeVore, Chuck. “An Obama Judge Just Threw out New York’s Lawsuit against the Trump Tax Cut.” Forbes, September 30, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2019/09/30/an-obama-judge-just-threw-out-new-yorks-lawsuit-against-the-trump-tax-cut/?sh=547203952621.
  28. “Americans against Double Taxation Inc, Full Filing – Nonprofit Explorer.” ProPublica. Accessed June 13, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/823063357/202043499349200904/full.
  29. IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search, Americans Against Double Taxation (EIN 82-3063357). Accessed August 14, 2023.
  30. “Americans against Double Taxation.” Americans Against Double Taxation. Accessed June 13, 2023. https://www.americansagainstdoubletaxation.org/.
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Nonprofit Information

  • Accounting Period: December - November
  • Tax Exemption Received: July 1, 2018

    • Available Filings

    Period Form Type Total revenue Total functional expenses Total assets (EOY) Total liabilities (EOY) Unrelated business income? Total contributions Program service revenue Investment income Comp. of current officers, directors, etc. Form 990
    2018 Dec Form 990EZ $0 $23,396 $55,024 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0

    Americans Against Double Taxation

    660 N CAPITAL ST NW
    Washington, DC 20001-1642