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1 Gerald Prante, Questions and Answers on the Alternative Minimum Tax 1 (2007)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/ffjexz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: FOUNDAT!ON
July 21, 2007
Questions and Answers on the Alternative Minimum Tax
by Gerald Prante
Fiscal Fact No. 94
Q: What is the AMT?
A: AMT stands for alternative minimum tax. It's IRS Form 6251, similar to the infamous IRS
Form 1040 but with different rules and rates. Taxpayers must calculate their tax liability using
both forms and then pay the higher of the two calculations. The AMT was created in 1969 when
the Treasury Secretary reported that 155 high-income people had managed to legally pay nothing
by earning all their income from tax-free sources.
Here's the IRS's basic definition of the AMT: htpjii ,wirs.govtaxtpicstc556.htrn
Q: Whose idea was the alternative minimum tax?
A: Early versions were put forth by the Johnson Treasury, as well as by Robert F. Kennedy
during his 1968 presidential campaign. Weeks before his assassination, Kennedy outlined his
ideas for the tax code, which included a one-line version of the alternative minimum tax. Each
taxpayer would have multiplied his adjusted gross income by 20 percent, and that would have
been the lowest amount he could owe. The version that ultimately passed a year later was quite
different and far more complex.
For more detail about the history of AMT and RFK's plan:
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http ://wwk-wtaxtbundation.org/blog/showi22490.html

Q: What percentage of American taxpayers had to pay extra because of the AMT in 2006?

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