Free Republic

More than 17 million individuals and families could start the new year facing higher taxes because of a provision unfamiliar to most taxpayers -- the alternative minimum tax. The new year means the expiration of a temporary fix that prevents the alternative minimum tax from hitting millions of people this year on taxes due next April. But if Congress doesn't act, the additional tax will return for the 2006 tax year. Originally designed to make sure wealthy individuals paid some tax, the alternative minimum tax reaches further into the middle class every year as inflation pushes more and more people...

Last summer, IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti promised an immediate 28 percent increase in the number of tax audits. The National Research Program (NRP), instituted in January, is the first installment toward making good on that promise. The NRP is the resurrected Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program (TCMP) audit. The TCMP audit was the grueling line-by-line examination of randomly selected tax returns audited to compile statistical data for the Discriminate Function System (DIF) database. This is a computer program that compares every line of your tax return with national and regional averages. If any line of your return is higher than...