Political Quotes

“In 1969, Congress passed the alternative minimum tax. It had come to light that a small group of wealthy individuals were using exemptions in the tax code to evade paying any taxes at all. Congress passed the minimum tax law so that high income earners would be obligated to pay a minimum amount in taxes no matter what. That was then. Today, the minimum tax has grown to penalize middle class families and small business owners. There are a number of reasons. One is that the alternative tax brackets have never been indexed to inflation. We all know that a dollar in 1969 went a lot further than it does today. But the minimum tax doesn't take this into account. And today's middle class families are getting hit with higher tax bills. Consider if you are married, filing a joint return, and your family makes more than $58,000 a year, you may be liable under the alternative minimum tax to owe additional Federal income tax. If you are a single mother who makes $35,000 a year and gets a little over $5,000 in alimony payments, you could owe more taxes. Standard deductions that the Congress has passed to help support families, encourage homeownership, allow for taxable State and local refunds, can actually force middle class families to pay more in Federal taxes. The national taxpayer advocate, the person responsible inside the IRS to look after the taxpayer's interests, says the alternative minimum tax is the number one problem facing American taxpayers.”