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The Alternative Minimum Tax for Individuals: Legislative Initiatives and Their Revenue Effects , Record No.: RS22100, Date: July 07, 2005 1 (July 7, 2005)

handle is hein.tera/crstax0017 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS22100
Updated July 7, 2005
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
The Alternative Minimum Tax for Individuals:
Legislative Initiatives and Their Revenue
Effects
Gregg Esenwein
Specialist in Public Finance
Government and Finance Division
Summary
The alternative minimum tax (AMT) for individuals was originally enacted to
ensure that all taxpayers, especially high-income taxpayers, paid at least a minimum
amount of federal taxes. However, the AMT is not indexed for inflation, and this factor,
combined with the recent reductions in the regular income tax, has greatly expanded the
potential impact of the AMT.
Temporary provisions intended to mitigate the effects of the AMT expire at the end
of 2005. If this occurs, then the number of taxpayers subject to the AMT will increase
from 3 million in 2004 to 21 million in 2006. The Congressional Budget Office
estimates that extending and indexing the 2006 AMT parameters would reduce federal
revenue by $191 billion over the next five years.
The conference agreement on the 2006 budget resolution, H.Con.Res. 95, contained
$106 billion in tax relief over the next five years, $70 billion of which would be
protected through the reconciliation process. Under reconciliation, $11 billion of tax
relief is allocated for 2006. The budget resolution, however, would not provide enough
tax relief to hold the AMT harmless over the next five years. To date, seven stand-alone
bills (S. 1103, H.R. 206, H.R. 703, H.R. 1186, H.R. 1538, H.R. 1599, and H.R. 2987)
modifying the AMT have been introduced in the 109th Congress. The Administration
did not include modifications to the AMT in its FY2006 budget proposal.
This report will be updated as legislative action warrants.
The alternative minimum tax (AMT) for individuals was originally enacted to ensure
that all taxpayers, especially high-income taxpayers, paid at least a minimum amount of
federal taxes.1 However, absent legislative action, there will be a significant increase in
the number of middle- to upper-middle-income taxpayers affected by the AMT in the near

Congressional Research Service - -The Library of Congress

' There is also a corporate minimum tax, but it is not addressed in this report.

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