Whew! AMT bullet dodged for another year!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/19/pf/taxes/amt_vote_walkup/index.htm?cnn=yes

Now if they can only abolish this schit once and for all I'd throw a party!

[frogger]

Damn! And I was really looking forward to paying more taxes this year for the fine government we have.

[Rick Lee]

If they do abolish it, rest assured, it will be replaced by higher taxes for people, probably in your bracket, Jeff.

[red-beard]

Politicians hate to fix things for good, because then they don't create good will every year. One of the representatives once said the worst thing congress ever did was index Social Security for inflation. He said it was one less "good thing" that congress did every year, that looked good to the voters.

[kang]

According to that article, it looks like all they did was raise the exemption level a bit:

The last "patch" - for 2006 - put the exemption levels at $62,550 for joint filers and $42,250 for single filers. The bill the House passed calls for an increase in those levels to $66,250 and $44,350, respectively.

Is that it? Not much difference, as far as I can tell. If you are above those income levels, is there any difference at all?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Well that sucks.

How the F is $62k joint considered "middle class" anyway?

[Rick Lee]

When you stop to think of how the AMT came into being - to punish about 100 or so rich folks who had no fed. tax liability about 40 yrs. ago because all their "income" was from tax-free bonds - and then think about what it has become, well, it's just an incredible outrage.

[Rob Channell]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Well that sucks.

How the F is $62k joint considered "middle class" anyway?

Seems like Hillary once defined rich as any family making over $100k per year. I seem to recall a 7% of the population falling into this category. This would place middle class below the $100k level. I told my wife if she went back to work we could be rich......

[Hugh R]

You guys are a bunch of pikes. I've been paying the AMT since day one. Poney up and pay "your fair share" Jesus Christ do I have to carry you guys too? After all you drive PORSCHES! you must be rich, and surely you can afford it. I think I'm going to go and puke.

[turbo6bar]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

You guys are a bunch of pikes. I've been paying the AMT since day one. Poney up and pay "your fair share" Jesus Christ do I have to carry you guys too?

It's not our fault you're a sucker.

[MRM]

So what are the details? The same structure as last year except they excempt the first $60k of income but the same rates are applied on the rest? I'm thinking this isn't going to help me much.

[RoninLB]

Dem's pay-go wizardry has been making their tax strategy dumber than its actual acceptance as policy.

They're in a pay-go box and don't want to admit another brilliant Dem policy gone kaput. Current issue was they have to raise other taxes to make up for AMT lost revenue.

AMT should signal all voters that the Dems have become the party of redistribution. At least when Bush increases revenue to the gov't he does it with class and even has everybody feel good about it.

Combine pay-go with the AMT issue and a Dem controlled Congress and presidency and there will be more redistribution and socialist freebies.

The unintended consequences of AMT include more high income exodus from high tax states like NY.