What's the SALTernative?

Today we’re excited to launch SALTernative, a free web app that lets anyone — from researchers and journalists to households and Hill staff — simulate reforms to the state‑and‑local‑tax (SALT) deduction and the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and see their effects on:

• The federal budget (2026–35)

• Average household incomes across the distribution

• Individual households’ net income, effective SALT caps, and property‑tax subsidy rates

You can start exploring right now at policyengine.org/us/salternative.

• Major policy change may be imminent. When individual provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire after 2025, the explicit $10,000 SALT cap vanishes and AMT parameters revert, reshaping incentives for millions of taxpayers.

• The interaction matters. The AMT disallows the SALT deduction, creating an effective SALT cap that can remain even without a statutory cap.

• Transparent evidence is scarce. While existing estimates are static tables for individual reforms, SALTernative is flexible, open‑source, and free.

Question	How the tool helps
“What if we doubled the SALT cap for married couples but kept the AMT?”	Toggle a checkbox and compare distributional and budget impacts side‑by‑side.
“If TCJA expires, how large is the effective SALT cap for a $250,000‑income household in New Jersey?”	Enter the household in the Personalized Calculator and view the value (it depends on other factors like mortgage interest).
“How much revenue would repealing both SALT and the AMT raise or lose over 2026‑35?”	Run the scenario and read the ten‑year budget window total.

Key features at launch include:

• Current‑law vs. current‑policy baselines. Simulate against either an automatic TCJA sunset or a full extension.

• Behavioral responses. Optionally incorporate CBO elasticities so earnings adjust when marginal tax rates change.

• Transparent methodology. We’ve developed the tool open-source on GitHub, using the open-source PolicyEngine US microsimulation model — including a full set of state income tax rules, critical for SALT and AMT calculations.

We’re hosting a joint webinar with Arnold Ventures (whose generous support made SALTernative possible) on Thursday, April 24, at 10 AM ET.

We’ll walk through live demos, answer technical questions, and discuss how analysts are already using the model.

👉 Register here

1. Head to policyengine.org/us/salternative.

2. Choose a baseline, adjust SALT and AMT settings, and watch the charts update.

3. Share your findings, cite the model, and help create a world guided by transparent, verifiable evidence.

Thank you to Arnold Ventures for supporting this work, and to our open‑source contributors who reviewed code, built datasets, and stress‑tested the interface.

See you at the webinar!