Since Jerry Furham doesn’t allow comments on his blog, I figured I’d answer his post about alternative minimum tax here. In it, Jerry asserts that AMT doesn’t affect the middle class and challenges the Washington Post to produce any middle class Virginian it affects.
Well, as a CPA in Virginia, I could produce a list of middle class Virginians affected by the tax, but then I’d be violating their privacy. (I have one client with taxable income of $56,725 in 2005 that was subject to the tax!) Suffice it to say that because the AMT has not been adjusted for inflation (unlike nearly everything else in the tax code), it causes an increasing number of middle class Americans – and Virginians – to have to pay it.
But knowing that Jerry won’t take just my word for it, let me point him to the official statistics from the IRS’ website. Looking at the 2004 data from Table 3.1, 181,563 returns with taxable income of $100,000 or less paid the AMT, with the bulk of those returns – 107,214 – being those with taxable income of $75,000 – $100,000.
So there you have it.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Great post Vivian. Furhman rarely offers solutions to his more than often unjustified, false accusations and criticism.
Perhaps he should come off his moutain from time to time and visit the “real world of Virginia” that his buddy George Allen knows and loves so much.
You are right again Vivian. My friend has 5 kids, 2 of them adopted after her sister died and she was left to raise them. She did a wonderful thing, volunteering to raise those children. Having 5 kids under 12 she’s a stay at home mom. Her husband doesn’t make that much money, around $100,000, which doesn’t go far in NOVA with 5 children. They NEVER go out to dinner and they can’t begin to afford a vacation. Yet they get stuck with the ATM!
I have no idea what this has to do with George Allen, but I do know that many middle class families trip the ATM for the mistake of having more than 2.2 children.
Today’s Post had an article about the ATM. This is one thing that I DO hope the democrats accomplish:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001800.html
Shawn, your guy won. Why the crabby attitude?
Now what could be missing from the scenario you draw? Could it be that there is something left out of your tale about the tax return that shows taxable income of $56,725 and still a requirement to pay the AMT?
You and I both know that there are circumstances – many circumstances – that can cause this. How about providing all tax data going back five years previous and let the readers decide?
Then we’ll let them determine for themselves if one can be MIDDLE CLASS in Virginia and fall under the onerous AMT umbrella. I say it is not possible.
Jerry – you said produce one middle class Virginian – I did that. And you know as well as I do that there is no way that I can disclose that kind of information.
You can say all you want that it is not possible but I had 12 clients in 2005 with taxable incomes of $115,000 or less that paid the tax. The stats from the IRS’ website do not lie.