Tuesday, January 27, 2009

AS THE CONGRESS TURNS

Over at THE TAX LAWYER’S BLOG Peter Pappas asks the question “House Approves Stimulus Bill, But Where is AMT Fix?”.

The answer is nowhere!

The House Ways and Means Committee has approved the tax portion of the stimulus package without the annual AMT fix.

Peter quotes USATaxNews.com quoting Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, responding to this omission –

It makes no sense to give tax cuts with one hand and take them away with another. I’ll fight to have the alternative minimum tax patch for 2009 included in the Senate version of the stimulus bill, so that millions of middle-class Americans won’t have their tax cuts taken away before they ever receive them.”

We had hoped that Congress would take care of the annual dreaded AMT fix (the AMT is dreaded – not the fix) early in the year – not as good as doing away with the damned thing altogether, but better than waiting till the last minute to pass a patch again (see an earlier “As the Congress Turns").

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