Crunch Time for Congress

July 27, 2007 8:55 AM |

Among those items pushed back to September is the Alternative Minimum Tax reform plan being developed by the House Ways and Means Committee. While no actual bill has been released, it is known that the House Democrats want to exclude families with incomes of up to $250,000 a year (or $125,000 for singles) from the AMT, reduce the AMT for those between $250,000 and $500,000, and pay for the reform with a surtax on those with incomes above $500,000. Anti-poverty advocates are excited that the plan would also include improvements in the child tax credit and Earned Income Tax Credit.

While there is some question of whether or not the President would sign such a bill, it's possible the White House would find it risky to veto a bill that saves millions of middle-income taxpayers from the AMT (which is scheduled to expand its reach from about 4 million to 23 million this year if Congress does not act) in order to protect the very wealthiest Americans, who have received most of the Bush tax cuts.

The Senate Finance Committee is said to be interested in simply passing a one-year or two-year "patch," or temporary extension of the exemption that keeps most people from paying the AMT. This would cost around $50 billion just for one year. Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) has implied that he might increase the federal budget deficit by this amount rather than find revenue to pay for it. The Finance Committee has not tried to introduce a bill before the August recess.

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This page contains a single entry by published on July 27, 2007 8:55 AM.

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