Senators seek repeal of alternative minimum tax

Marketwatch ^ | Jan 4, 2007 5:37 PM ET | William L. Watts, MarketWatch

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The Senate's top tax writers kicked off the new Congress Thursday with a renewed call to repeal the alternative minimum tax.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the tax panel's senior Republican, introduced legislation that would eliminate the alternative levy, which initially, in 1969, targeted a handful of wealthy Americans who had paid no income tax. Because the AMT wasn't indexed to inflation, it has grown to threaten millions of middle-class taxpayers.

'The new Congress intends to provide tax relief to middle-income Americans in a fiscally responsible way, and the AMT is the right place to start.'

— Sen. Max Baucus

Lawmakers have regularly enacted temporary "patches" designed to temporarily prevent the tax from encroaching on the middle class. But full repeal of the tax would leave a massive hole in long-term budget projections, making a long-term fix difficult for lawmakers to handle.

The lawmakers offered a similar bill last year, but it didn't move forward, partly due to concerns about its long-term cost. Repealing the AMT would reduce revenues by $750 billion through 2016 if President Bush's first-term tax cuts expire, as planned, and by $1.3 trillion if they are extended, according to the Tax Policy Center.

[FormerACLUmember]

It is a sneaky, underhanded massive tax increase on the middle class.

In a million, billion years the democrat party will not vote this reform to eliminate the AMT.

[rabscuttle385]

In the House, new Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has said that fixing AMT is a top priority but that lawmakers will need political cover from the White House as they seek to make up lost revenues.

Typical politician. That's code word for...we're going to increase taxes (or "fees") somewhere else. Why do the politicians (on both sides) never stop to consider that, instead of raising taxes, they could perhaps cut some of the unnecessary pork?

[goldstategop]

I'd say let affluent Democrats pay higher taxes. Its only fair! If the AMT is repealed, the Democrats are advocating tax cuts for the rich. This will not stand!!!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[WhiteGuy]

yeah,

the biggest opportunity for REAL tax reform in decades, and the gop chose to look the other way.

[Kimmers]

I channel surfed upon a show and a young women was walking actually strutting and describing that through hard work she was now in middle class. She was describing her $200.00 jeans. I went ballistic, especially when the announcer then described how hard it was to achieve middle class....maybe if one did not buy $200.00 jeans one could achieve financial stability.

[dynachrome]

"$200.00 jeans"
Dynachrome likes to waste money, but that's over the top!

[SmithL]

Bravo!

[MaxMax]

Repealing the AMT would reduce revenues by $750 billion through 2016

Even "I know" this is not how tax cuts work.

[Freedom_no_exceptions]

'The new Congress intends to provide tax relief to middle-income Americans in a fiscally responsible way, and the AMT is the right place to start.'
— Sen. Max Baucus

"Fiscally responsible" = government code word for "until the Sun stops giving off light and our solar system comes to an end, causing the permanent extinction of all humans, taxes will never, ever, ever decrease."

[Kimmers]

I really wonder if one can tell the difference between a $200.00 pair of jeans and a $20.00 pair.....I am sure they shrink, fade and get dirty about the same.

[Cicero]

Eliminating the AMT would be a big, big accomplishment. I doubt whether the Democrats would do this in a million years, but if they allow the issue to be raised, a lot of people will support it.

They may have plans to add some other tax instead, but I say go ahead and try to do it. It was the one big failure in Bush's tax cuts that he didn't try to touch the AMT.

Clinton, of course, raised it.

[concentric circles]

D.O.A., with little fanfare, sent to a subcommittee for study, no doubt.

[Fresh Wind]

I really wonder if one can tell the difference between a $200.00 pair of jeans and a $20.00 pair.....I am sure they shrink, fade and get dirty about the same.

Aren't the $200 jeans the ones that are sandblasted to make them look worn and faded?

[hosepipe]

Just the sound of alternative minimum tax sounds Obscene..
It has a nasty parasitical sound to it..

[Kimmers]

or they are washed with rocks....

[wouldntbprudent]

Uh, could they make the repeal retroactive? Please?

[Hambone02]

What exactly is middle income?

[Chode]

a girl at work has three pair... all LASER cut and sewn to her measurements, and they fit her perfectly.

toooo bad she doesn't have a perfect body, lotta money that still can't hide the extra 100lbs. 8^)

[stylin19a]

scratchin my head...isn't it the Rats who claim there is no middle class ?