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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: ,,tpi/ wwwtaxfoundation.,orgib)i-sho-w/22495 httrl http ://wwk-wtaxtbundation.org/blog/showi22490.html Q: What percentage of American taxpayers had to pay extra because of the AMT in 2006?