I believe the Alternative Minimum Tax hits a taxpayer when his/her income hits $100,000 or so and also when that person of that income level takes what the Gov't considers too many deductions.
They've raised the income levels which is good but it should have been done in a different bill.
Scroll down and look at the chart:
http://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/irs-tax-return/5855.html#middleclass
Hmmm. I don’t really pay attention to my taxes, but I make quite a bit over the 100,000 and I claim head of household with 11 deductions during the year, and at tax time write a humungous check. I probably take too many deductions, but I like getting a bigger paycheck and just paying it back in April. I should probably pay more attention to this kind of stuff, but I’ve had the same accountant for 15 years and I trust him. I guess I could be paying this AMT.