The Stealth Tax

Busniness Week ^ | BusinessWeek Feb 10-16, 2004 | Howard Gleckman

[yoe]

Form 6251- Alternative Minimum Tax - Individuals

page 94 BusinessWeek/Febuary 16, 2004
This weeks BusinessWeek..........read it.

[KantianBurke]

I make next to nothing. Is there a chance I'll get hit with this BS?

[alancarp]

So all of this "tax breaks only for the wealthy" stuff isn't just rhetoric either: sounds like it's an out-and-out lie, for there are no such breaks.

[newgeezer]

These days, she's the nation's taxpayer advocate ... There on line 43 of her Form 1040 was an extra levy of $721. "I was just like, 'Wait a minute, how did that happen?"'

Cute. I wonder if she wears belly shirts to work. ;O)

[Axenolith]

Just think how addicted to that crack [money] the government will be in 6 years...

[Glenn]

This is pretty interesting reading. Especially the part about how the federal government would lose a trillion dollars (how can a government lose money?) if they fixed it. Secondly, the article claims the Bush tax cuts will effectively be the engine that fuels this monstrosity.

Where'd I put my tea?

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I make next to nothing. Is there a chance I'll get hit with this BS?

Next to no chance.

[petro45acp]

"`I CAN'T AVOID IT'
As it takes over the tax code, the AMT will effectively repeal much of the Bush tax cuts: By 2010, the AMT will swallow one-third of the value of the 2001 and 2003 rate reductions. Taxpayers with incomes of $100,000 to $500,000 will lose two-thirds of their tax cut. And that debate over whether to make President Bush's rate cuts permanent? It won't matter to many taxpayers for whom the only rates that will count are the 26% and 28% of the AMT."

As if there was one more reason needed to despise the current tax codes, the IRS (it really steals), and the size of a government that needs all this money for its huge spending on silly, useless, and unconstitutional programs!!!!!!!

"rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar's......and grinning,.....yeah, I'm grinning......I think I'm grinning....."

[blackdog]

Sounds strangely close to the "Flat Tax" everyone's been so giddy flirting with.

The AMT just brings the flat tax in a slower process. In twenty years there will be just the AMT for the people, and for those who can employ an army of accountants to avoid it, a bunch of whores paying nothing.

[stljoe71]

The fact is most tax breaks are already phased out for the upper middle class (forget wealthy)

That includes IRA deductions
Child tax credits
etc.

[IYAS9YAS]

With a W-2 and the standard deductions and exemptions? No. You'll likely never see it at the lower end of the wage spectrum. Even up to $75,000/year just in wages you'll likely never see it.

[blackdog]

When we ran the numbers, it was by far more advantageous to keep one parent at home. But then again we have no debt to speak of either.

When we saw the $700 per month daycare, which we got no deduction for because we made too much money, the second commute expenses, the wardrobe demands, the monies pissed away to pay people to do the things around our home that we had no time to fix because we were too busy working, and the added tax burden, it was real clear.

Of course there is the risk of the one job being lost, exported, outsourced, and the family being in a crisis. That's what the gubmint is counting on! Scare both parents into working!

[KantianBurke]

Thank you for the info. As little as I have, the thought of being hit with this big "secret" tax sent shivers down my spine. Unlike a certain current President, I don't have $20 million to give to a wife I don't have to play art teacher with.

[Glenn]

But then again we have no debt to speak of either.

That's a killer. Without a monsterous mortgage, you are less likely to have enough deductions to get you past the standard limit, in my observation. It's pretty stacked against the upper middle class. I pay the IRS more than 25% of my income every year. Then there is the state, local, school, phone, road...

Everybody wants a piece of me.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Don't count on it.

[blackdog]

Covet much? Sheesh!

At least this president met a payroll.

[KantianBurke]

I do my job, I don't complain about it, I do it well and get paid twice a month for my work. Unlike Dubya who is the one proposing 20 MILLION of taxpayers' dollars to keep Laura occupied, I just want to have my paychecks left alone. Maybe save up and start a family at some point. That some type of serious envy to you big shot?

[Atlas Sneezed]

Without a monsterous mortgage, you are less likely to have enough deductions to get you past the standard limit, in my observation.

---

Don't forget state income tax and property tax.

[Glenn]

Don't forget state income tax and property tax.

I would never forget those. H&R Block wouldn't either. But my mortgage interest is only a couple thousand this year and declining in a hurry.

[blackdog]

Farming works well for us. I figure I make about a dollar ten an hour and work eighty hour weeks in a good year after expenses, reinvestment, and improvements.

I don't think I could ever work a regular job in the traditional sense ever again.