Frist disappoints again.We need someone with strong management skills and hugh cojones that's not afraid to kick ass and take names.
Frist is just a caver.
Alito should already have been confirmed.
Posted on 12/13/2005 5:12:34 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Congress won't address the growing reach of the alternative minimum tax this year, leaving more than 15 million individuals and families subject to its bite for the first time next year.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., told reporters Tuesday that legislation addressing the alternative minimum tax won't be completed this year. Lawmakers can act next year to make retroactive changes that ensure taxpayers don't pay more in 2006, but millions will start the year in its grasp.
The alternative minimum tax, designed to stop the wealthy from avoiding all taxation, threatens more middle class taxpayers every year because of inflation. The number of individuals and families opening their wallets to an alternative minimum tax liability is projected to jump from roughly 3.5 million this year to nearly 19 million next year.
Congress regularly erects barriers against the tax to prevent inflation and recent tax cuts from pushing middle class families onto the alternative minimum tax rolls. The most recent patch holding back the tax expires Dec. 31.
The House and Senate passed separate bills applying a temporary fix on the problem next year, reducing taxes for those affected by roughly $30 billion. Those bills have gotten stuck in a broader debate over tax policy, specifically a GOP effort to prevent tax cuts for capital gains and dividends from expiring at the end of 2008.
The investors' tax cuts have been the priority of Republican leaders, who hold out hope that Congress could still pass an extension before lawmakers break for the holidays.
Democrats say Republicans have their priorities wrong. "We should fix the AMT for 2006 and work to address it permanently before even thinking about cap gains," said Sen. Max Baucus (news, bio, voting record), D-Mont.
The expiration of the temporary patch means nearly 19 million individuals and families can expect to pay the alternative minimum tax next year. More than 15 million taxpayers would face the alternative minimum tax for the first time, most of then married couples. The extra taxes would come due in 2007 when returns must be filed to the Internal Revenue Service.
The alternative minimum tax exists as a second system of taxation that forces some individuals and families to figure their taxes twice and pay the higher amount. It's more likely to ensnare taxpayers who have multiple children or pay high state and local taxes.
It's frequently criticized, and a presidential panel on tax reform has said it should be abolished.
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On the Net:
Internal Revenue Service: http://www.irs.gov
Gee, what a surprise...
Those f*cking f*ckers.
As much as it pains me, I like the AMT for its potential to generate something of a taxpayer revolt.
Frist disappoints again.We need someone with strong management skills and hugh cojones that's not afraid to kick ass and take names.
Frist is just a caver.
Alito should already have been confirmed.
Republican thieves. Democrat thieves. The only difference is the degree to which they steal from the productive.
A big win for the Dems - there's 15 million people who probably won't bother voting at all for a Republican Party that refuses to represent their interests.
the irony of the AMT is that it hits the red staters worse than the blue staters.
Imagine that. They ran out of time. Yeah, Right!
We need a part time congress with a moratorium on any new laws and a scheduled roll back of existing laws and the size of the federal bureaucracy
How nice, I guess I'll have to fire someone just so I can pay my taxes. (not really, I would rather trade my H3 in than let anyone go, but I figured out what the AMT would hit me with the other week and it wasn't pretty..)
If the issue is tax year 2006, wouldn't Republicans have until December 31 to make changes? Retroactive tax cuts may be better politically than timely ones.
"the irony of the AMT is that it hits the red staters worse than the blue staters"
???- It hits worse in the states and localities with high tax rates and higher incomes on which those rates are levied [Inhale deep and start singing "New York, New York"]. And New York, especially NYC, is a "blue" location.
I live in the People's Socialist Republic of Nueva York and I can tell you that the AMT is a nightmare. This might wake up some democRAT zombies, when the tax bill arrives.
No Baucus, ALL OF YOU are to blame on this one, Republicans and DeathoCrats alike.
I hope my fledgling anti-incumbent movement hits at least a few of these political cowards.
To think that he, Frist, was once touted as a presidential possibility a few months back.
I think those bastards should be forced to stay in the Senate/House non-stop until we get tax reform, SS reform, Medicare reform, etc. No showers, no food (might help fatass Kennedy and Levin), just water and a bottle to pee in -- until the United States gets some real reform.
They were too busy holding hearings on whether Sammy Sosa took steroids.
Or if scissors should be allowed on airplanes!!
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