[lbo-talk] who the FRICK came up with this crap

snit snat snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com
Mon Oct 11 19:34:38 PDT 2004


What is it? The Alternative Min. Tax? I have never filed long form before, though I should have because for the last four years, I've incurred expenses to work from home and you can deduct a your rent/utilities for portion of home used for office. But, I've never bothered b/c it was just too much trouble and I qualified for EIC so I figured I shouldn't be trying to pay even less taxes. I'm an ass like that.

So, I'm plodding along, following directions, filling out this worksheet and that and come across this Alt Min Tax thing. Whatever. My experience with that crap is usually that you spend 1/2 hr on it to save 2 bux. Not worth my time.

Years ago, I was pointing out to Brad and Max that most of the people I knew--single moms--didn't bother with EIC. They didn't know what it was and it gave them a headache looking at the forms. I used to do 5 people's income tax returns every year, just so they get that EIC --which saved my ass, let me tell you!

My dad used to make a tidy sum doing people frickin' EZ forms for $20 a pop.

What a racket.

At 10:16 PM 10/11/2004, alanjacobson wrote:
>Oh, AMT is not that complicated...
>
>You start with your regular taxable income
>plus or minus AMT adjustments
>plus tax preferences
>Thats your AMTI before AMT NOL deduction
>minus AMT NOL deduction (limited to 90%)
>Thats your alternative minimum taxable income
>minus exemption
>Thats your AMT base
>times your tax rate 26% up to $175,000, 28% over
>Thats your Tentative AMT before the AMT foreign tax credit
>minus the AMT foreign tax credit (possibly limited to 90%)
>Thats your Tentative Minimum Tax
>minus your regular income tax liability before credits minus regular foreign
>tax credit
>Thats your Alternative Minimum Tax, if the number is positive.
>
>Remember allowable deductions are different for AMT, no misc or 2% of base
>deductions, 10% base on medical not 7.5% of AGI, no standard deduction or
>personal exemptions (there is an AMT exemption of $24,500 to $49,000
>depending on your filing status. This gets phased out starting $75,000 to
>$150,000 depending on filing status at a rate of $1 for $4 of AMTI.
>
>Don't worry, rich people don't spend a New York minute on this stuff, they
>pay tax accountants to do that. Like Dubya says, taxing the rich won't work,
>they have accountants to get them out of it and he should know.
>
>Seriously, AMT is going to bite a lot of just plain folks in the butt over
>the next couple of years simply due to bracket inflation, in the
>neighborhood of 35 million taxpayers, and people are going to scream bloody
>murder about it. That will get Congress off the dime and tweak it back up to
>the higher income levels.
>
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