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I'm certainly no fan of taxes in any form, but I have an issue w/ people crying about the AMT.

Their basic gripe is that they are shocked to find out they can't take as many deductions as they thought they could.

As far as I'm concerned, taxes should be uniformly lower across the board. This whole business of singling out specific groups or activities and granting them special benefits through tax deductions is systematically unfair from the get go.

Their basic gripe is that they are shocked to find out they can't take as many deductions as they thought they could.

I was put into the AMT last year when my sixth child was born.

It is wrong, wrong, wrong for your taxes to go UP because you have a child.

Their basic gripe is that they are shocked to find out they can't take as many deductions as they thought they could.

The problem is that the AMT targets those that are not necessarily the target of the AMT. It does not have the desired effect of taxing the Fat Cats that the law was created to tax.

Through inaction, what would have been a small problem to fix is now one hugh problem aimed directly at the middle class.

I agree taxes should be uniformly lower across the board.

The way the AMT works, by comparing a total of deductions (many of which have already been partially phased out due to income level) with the AGI, is just bizarre.

If an AMT was doing what it was supposed to do -- ie, making sure EVERYBODY pays at least SOME income tax -- then I think a much fairer method would have been this:

Every pays 5% of ALL INCOME, with no deductions and no exemptions except for SS/Disability income. Lower the tax rate on all the "brackets" by 5% at the same time.

That AMT would raise $500B/yr -- more than half of the total Individual Income taxes currently paid.

Of course, the the goal of the AMT is not, and has never been, to ensure that EVERYBODY pays at least some taxes. It has always been intended to punish the wealthy for their success. The Socialists could never get their pet nanny-state programs adopted if their voters weren't getting a free ride from the existing income tax.

Even making them contribute 5% of their income to supporting the country would make a huge change in their voting habits.