Ugh AMT!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious - what is your MAGI? Ours went up this year and I'm wondering if we're also going to get slammed with AMT. We don't have a ton of deductions (just mortgage, local tax and some charity).

AGI was something like $325. Paid $64K, AMT says we owe another $7K.

Nothing fancy. Mortgage, state tax, 2 kids, some charity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It puzzels me when people say you need to make more to avoid the AMT. it is like people hate the word not more taxes.

AMT forces certain midrange incomes (mostly in the 25%-28% tax bracket with certain deduction) to pay taxes using the AMT formula which only has two brackets (26%-28%). If a good chunk of your income falls above the 33% bracket then of course you are not paying the AMT but you are paying even more taxes.

I do not know if this will make everyone feel better but think of it as we are all riding the same train and at a certain station we need to get off and ride the AMT train for a bit. Then you get off on the next stop and hop back on the old track. I am not jealous of the people who never pay the AMT; they are less fortunate than I am. I am not jealous of people who don't pay the AMT because they make too much; they have already been there and paid their dues and then paying some more.

It's the lost deductions, coupled with the shrinking AMT exemption amount. If you are at the low end of the AMT income scale, your marginal rate is 35 percent. That's what gets me.

[Anonymous]

Needing to pay AMT would be a dream come true for most Americans.

Just a little reality check folks.

[Anonymous]

Pretty unfair that people making 300k have a 35% marginal tax rate and certain millionaires/billionaires are paying nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Needing to pay AMT would be a dream come true for most Americans.

Just a little reality check folks.

true, but as the poster above points out it sucks that high-earning professionals get really screwed when it comes to taxes while trust funders get better treatment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Needing to pay AMT would be a dream come true for most Americans.

Just a little reality check folks.

Supporting a severely disabled child on the AMT - we're totally broke and close to bankruptcy.
No fancy vacations, old cars, medium sized house with huge issues, two kids. In the Washington area it's not such a special income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Needing to pay AMT would be a dream come true for most Americans.

Just a little reality check folks.

Supporting a severely disabled child on the AMT - we're totally broke and close to bankruptcy.
No fancy vacations, old cars, medium sized house with huge issues, two kids. In the Washington area it's not such a special income.

+1, we made a few thousand over and got hit with the AMT. We have a small house (not even medium) with many issues, old cars and live very modestly. We do spend a fortune on therapies.

[Anonymous]

The way to not pay the AMT is to vote Republican so we can have some semblance of a reasonable tax code where people can keep more of their money to spend the way they want to spend their money rather than how Schumer and Pelosi want to spend your money!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I tried the married filing separately and our bill was higher but I am a SAHM.

And you declared zero income?

Yes, I have no income - no part-time. Maybe a drop in investments, but not much. I used of the computer programs that caculates both filed jointly and married filed seperately.

Are you trying to be funny?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty unfair that people making 300k have a 35% marginal tax rate and certain millionaires/billionaires are paying nothing.

Very true.

Thank God Hillary and all her donors lost.

Let's hope Trump does what he promised he'd do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I tried the married filing separately and our bill was higher but I am a SAHM.

And you declared zero income?

Yes, I have no income - no part-time. Maybe a drop in investments, but not much. I used of the computer programs that caculates both filed jointly and married filed seperately.

Are you trying to be funny?

I don't work, I have no income so yes, I declared no income for me. How am I trying to be funny? My husband works so of course we have household income but I don't. I have tried both ways when I was working and not working and when I worked, we would have owed more filing separately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Needing to pay AMT would be a dream come true for most Americans.

Just a little reality check folks.

Supporting a severely disabled child on the AMT - we're totally broke and close to bankruptcy.
No fancy vacations, old cars, medium sized house with huge issues, two kids. In the Washington area it's not such a special income.

+1, we made a few thousand over and got hit with the AMT. We have a small house (not even medium) with many issues, old cars and live very modestly. We do spend a fortune on therapies.

Sounds tough and probably frustrating. I think that medical expenses, most childcare expenses etc need to be tax deductible. Charity begins at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty unfair that people making 300k have a 35% marginal tax rate and certain millionaires/billionaires are paying nothing.

The solution to that is to increase their taxes not to decrease yours.

I am more concerned the years we do not hit the AMT because it means we are paying more than the minimum for our income. If we hit the AMT it means we are paying the least we can for our income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty unfair that people making 300k have a 35% marginal tax rate and certain millionaires/billionaires are paying nothing.

Very true.

Thank God Hillary and all her donors lost.

Let's hope Trump does what he promised he'd do.

Is he proposing to eliminate the AMT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty unfair that people making 300k have a 35% marginal tax rate and certain millionaires/billionaires are paying nothing.

The original point of AMT was to prevent this from happening, although then George W Bush used it to promise people big tax cuts knowing they wouldn't really get them.

The answer is obviously not to give up on taxing anyone but to go back to the time when capital gains and dividends were taxed the same as earned income (not at half the rate of wages).