(Dem) Plan to ease middle-class taxes falters

Source: ap



Plan to ease middle-class taxes falters

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Tue Jul 10, 7:35 PM ET

WASHINGTON - House Democrats' promise to permanently protect millions of middle-class families from a mostly unknown tax increase is faltering before it's even unveiled.

Senate Democrats are pressing a Band-Aid approach to delay for just a year or two the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, from adding $2,000 more in taxes on average to families with incomes between $100,000 and $200,000 a year.

That way Democrats wouldn't have to go into next year's election after having tried, and probably failed, to raise income taxes on wealthy taxpayers — those making $500,000 or more — back to almost what they were before President Bush took office.

New York Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, would like to rewrite the AMT to once-and-for-all prevent it from ensnaring about 20 million additional and unsuspecting middle-class taxpayers. He and Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., had planned to unveil their plan in May but now that's not likely to occur before September, if then........

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070710/ap_on_go_co/congress_tax_hit;_ylt=Aqt_UhdF86J2WqLNsQ_xL1SWwvIE

I'm shocked. Shocked.

Not middle class. Over 80% of the households have incomes less than $100,000. In no way is this middle class. I hate when they do this shit, it confuses the real middle class into believing all this tax stuff applies to them.

....please say you're joking....I've already spent my continuing AMT tax break on watermelons and beer; what am I going to do now?

....'$100000-$200000', never mind, you can keep your powder dry; I just discovered I'm not middle-class....

$100,000-$200,000...???

who knew that the 'middle class' was doing so well?:shrug:

Apparently, with people making between $100,000 and $200,000. Party of the working class, indeed. :puke:

Hmmm... I wonder if our legislators fall into that tax bracket. :grr:

You need to look into it more. The AMT is not just for people making $100,000-$200,000. You can be making $46,000 and have 6 children, and you will have to pay the AMT because the tax code views your children as "tax shelters." It also treats health-care costs and property taxes as tax shelters. One of the consequences of this is that if you live in a blue state like NJ where property taxes are high, you will be more likely to pay the AMT than if you lived in a red state. (For more on this and other outrageous aspects of the tax code, read "Perfectly Legal" by David Cay Johnston.)

Note also that the AMT doesn't hurt the really rich. While the top 1% has been getting tax breaks, the upper middle-class has been shouldering the burden. If you are fine with doctors, engineers and professors paying the tax share of CEO's, go ahead and puke. It merely suggests that you don't have much of an idea of what the truly rich are making.

I don't pay the AMT, by the way.

eom

Working class = everyone who does not get to sit comfortably at the country club collecting rents, interest, dividends, and capital gains while the rest of us clock in for our 8-12 hour work day ... making those aforementioned and appropriated rents, interest, dividends, and capital gains. However, few see it this way (e.g. the thin sliver of well paid managers and magistrates serving the owning class aren't typically defined as "working class", etc.).

More solidarity is called for, thus my broad definition.

I have several clients who are grossing below 75k and are hit with the AMT...

It has, unlike everything else in the tax code, never been indexed for inflation...

That's all they need to do is fix that and they will have granted a whole bunch of folks a tax cut...

But if you really want to have a tax cut, take the cap off FICA and lower the rate to 5.0%...

That would put needed cash in the hands of the working poor every paycheck...

It would also give those who hire the working poor a slight tax cut since their matching would go down as well...

That's what they should do...

Tax those 50 million dollar salaries for Social Security and then we shall see the system right itself in to time at all...

big cluster f*ck in both houses of congress the dems control....
I do thank you
Ben David