Things You Should Know About the Alternative Minimum Tax!
The AMT was enacted in 1969 to prevent a small group of wealthy individuals from exploiting tax loopholes to avoid paying any taxes at all. Rather than eliminating the loopholes, Congress devised a scheme to compute a person’s tax in two ways: one using the standard tax system and the other using a unique “alternative” method. The taxpayer pays the highest of the two outcomes. As you may expect, this dual system is complicated and perplexing. The scheme didn’t disturb many people because it only applied to the wealthiest taxpayers. However, because the AMT levels did not keep up with inflation, they began to affect an increasing number of Americans. Here’s how to figure out whether you’re at risk and what you can do about AMT Tax planning . AMT Planning Is Unaffected By A Few Popular Tax Items Some items are deductible on a conventional income tax return but not on an AMT return. Beginning in 2018, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act repealed the personal exemption. Until...