Political Quotes

“I, too, join my new colleagues in cosponsoring this legislation. It is important that we act on this legislation before April 15 to correct a ruling by the Internal Revenue Service regarding the alternative minimum tax. It is a ruling that could dramatically and unfairly increase the tax burden on our farmers who use the cash method of accounting and who utilize installment sales on crops and livestock. It is interesting to me that this tax problem is one of the first issues needing legislative correction to present itself to the 105th Congress. It is interesting because the problem arises in the areas of small business and accounting, two areas in which I feel I have some particularly relevant insight. I am a small businessman and an accountant--the only accountant in the Senate, in fact. I have wondered for a long time why United States tax policymakers continue to subject small business owners to the onerous burden of calculating both corporate and alternative minimum tax liabilities. The fact is that fewer than 2 percent of the companies filing Federal income tax returns end up paying the alternative minimum tax. Still, all of these companies, many of them small businesses, have to maintain separate sets of records for tax purposes, and that is at a considerable cost.”