USA-Tax-News.Com reported today that,
Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has criticized the version of the economic recovery legislation released by the House Ways and Means Committee last week for leaving out provisions that would curtail the reach of the alternative minimum tax for another year.
“The tax bill released by the House does not contain an alternative minimum tax patch for this year. If the alternative minimum tax patch is not enacted into law, millions of middle-class Americans won’t get much of the tax benefits that they appear to be getting under the House bill, because the alternative minimum tax will take these benefits away,” Grassley commented in a statement.
“It makes no sense to give tax cuts with one hand and take them away with another. I’ll fight to have the alternative minimum tax patch for 2009 included in the Senate version of the stimulus bill, so that millions of middle-class Americans won’t have their tax cuts taken away before they ever receive them,” he added.
The Stimulus bill was approved by the House Ways and Means Committee last Thursday.
BNA Software had noted the lack of the AMT patch over a week ago and reported,
One noticeably absent provision in the stimulus package was an alternative minimum tax “patch” for tax year 2009. Raising the AMT exemption levels in 2009 to keep more than 20 million taxpayers from facing the tax would cost an estimated $80 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Lawmakers in both houses have expressed concern that inserting the AMT patch into the stimulus bill would either crowd out other tax incentives deemed to have a far greater stimulative effect on the economy or could push the cost of the total stimulus bill above their unofficial limit of $1 trillion.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters Jan. 15 that the immediate priorities for House Democrats are the investments in infrastructure and middle-class tax cuts in the package, not AMT.
Rangel echoed that view in comments to reporters, but said he expects senators to push harder for an AMT patch.
Related Blog Posts:
Temp Di Dire Arrivederci to the AMT
ReformAMT Group Wins, Gets Stock Option AMT Relief Included in Bailout Bill
Other Blog Posts:
Ways and Means Passes Stimulus Bill but Weakens 5 Yr NOL Carryback – Joe Kristan
House Ways and Means Approves $275 Billion Tax Portion of Stimulus Bill – Paul Caron
2 responses so far ↓
1 AS THE CONGRESS TURNS : The Tax Forum // Jan 27, 2009 at 8:20 pm
[...] Leave a comment Over at THE TAX LAWYER’S BLOG Peter Pappas asks the question “House Approves Stimulus Bill, But Where is AMT Fix?”. [...]
2 Senate Finance Committee Approves Tax Cuts: Includes AMT Patch // Jan 31, 2009 at 10:14 am
[...] best of all, Republicans got their AMT patch included in the bill: [A]dded to the markup during yesterday’s meeting [was]
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