Chuck Grassley: “Our friends in the House originally wanted to enact a hold harmless only through the end of 2001, while Senator Baucus…”

“Our friends in the House originally wanted to enact a hold harmless only through the end of 2001, while Senator Baucus and I were trying to do it through 2005. We got the final bill the way Senator Baucus and I wanted it. So it was not a problem then until the year 2005. Since the 2001 tax relief bill, the Finance Committee has produced bipartisan packages to continue to increase exemption amounts to keep taxpayers ahead of inflation, with the most recent being the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, which increased the AMT exemption to $62,550 for joint returns and $42,500 for individuals through the end of 2006. These packages put together since 2001 are unique in that they are the first sustained attempt undertaken by Congress to stem the spread of the AMT through inflation and hitting more middle-income taxpayers. Admittedly, these are all short-term fixes, but they illustrate a comprehension of the AMT inflation problem and what needs to be done to solve it. So this leads us to the present day and the situation we currently face. In 2004, the most recent year for which the IRS has complete tax data, more than 3 million families and individuals were hit by the AMT.”