Political Quotes

“the second in this series of bills is the Corporate Tax Equity Act, a bill designed to help U.S. businesses make larger capital expenditures and thereby enhance productivity growth and job creation by repealing the corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Mr. President, the original intent of the AMT was to make it harder for large, profitable corporations to avoid paying any federal income tax. But the way to have accomplished that objective was not, in my view, to impose an AMT, but to identify and correct the provisions of law that allowed large companies to inappropriately lower their federal tax liabilities to begin with. Ironically, the primary shelters corporations were using to minimize their tax liability--that is, the accelerated depreciation and safe harbor leasing of the old Tax Code-- were being corrected at the time the AMT was enacted. I would point out that the AMT is not a tax, per se. As indicated in an April 3, 1996 report by the Congressional Research Service, the AMT is merely intended to serve as a prepayment of the regular corporate income tax, not a permanent increase in overall corporate tax liability. What that means in practical terms is that businesses are forced to make interest-free loans to the federal government under the guise of the AMT. Corporations pay a tax for which they are not liable, but which they are able to apply toward their future regular tax liability.”