The Democratic 'Tax Plan'

[phrodeau]

The AMT affects everyone who fills out income tax forms. It says so in the booklet.

Even if I'm nowhere near the ballpark for AMT, I'm still required to go through the instructions and worksheet to prove it. A damn waste of time.

 

[Cheyenne]

The AMT affects everyone who fills out income tax forms. It says so in the booklet.

Even if I'm nowhere near the ballpark for AMT, I'm still required to go through the instructions and worksheet to prove it. A damn waste of time.

Nah, you don't have to. You can take the chance that you're wrong and just assume that you're not affected. Turn in your taxes "as is" without the additional calculations if you don't have the preference items that would cause you to fall within AMT's grasp.

 

[phrodeau]

Nah, you don't have to. You can take the chance that you're wrong and just assume that you're not affected. Turn in your taxes "as is" without the additional calculations if you don't have the preference items that would cause you to fall within AMT's grasp.

The IRS instructions do not offer that option. They spell out what you have to do, and they say that you have to figure out whether or not it applies.

 

[Cheyenne]

The IRS instructions do not offer that option. They spell out what you have to do, and they say that you have to figure out whether or not it applies.

You don't have to turn in any paperwork when you figure out that it doesn't so who knows if you did the silly paperwork or not other than you?

 

[phrodeau]

You don't have to turn in any paperwork when you figure out that it doesn't so who knows if you did the silly paperwork or not other than you?

I'm just saying that it's there, and it has to be dealt with.

I'm sure you're aware that no tax forms from different years are ever identical.

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

When we get our new Democrat Congress, under Hillary, the super rich will do what they've always done, move assets offshore, maybe even themselves.

There's a reason John Lennon was shot in New York; he was escaping pre-Thatcher England.

Thus everything aimed at the super rich will fall on someone else's shoulders. As go the haqndouts, eventually you too will be forced to put a hand out and accept the yoke you wished upon others.

Those of you who look at your fellow citizens by birth, color, income, etc., are heading straight down the trail to socialism, at best. Socialism is a system that makes society fair by retarding or destroying the best it has to offer.

 

[Ishmael]

It's amazing how those that have chosen to be parasites on society are so quick to attempt to punish the success of others. Not being able, or to cowardly, to just go to the door of those that have succeeded, put a gun to their head and steal their money, they demand the government does the dirty work for them.

Ishmael

 

[Cap’n AMatrixca]

Amen and pass the plate...

 

[Cheyenne]

I'm just saying that it's there, and it has to be dealt with.

I'm sure you're aware that no tax forms from different years are ever identical.

No, this is what you actually said:

The AMT affects everyone who fills out income tax forms. It says so in the booklet.

Even if I'm nowhere near the ballpark for AMT, I'm still required to go through the instructions and worksheet to prove it. A damn waste of time.

The vast majority of tax payers are NOT affected by AMT and do NOT have to fill out and worksheets to prove it.

Tax forms changing from year to year have nothing at all to do with it.

 

[Ishmael]

No, this is what you actually said:



The vast majority of tax payers are NOT affected by AMT and do NOT have to fill out and worksheets to prove it.

Tax forms changing from year to year have nothing at all to do with it.

Let me translate for you Chey.

"I fill out the AMT worksheet every year so I can bitch about it."

OK?

Ishmael

 

[Cheyenne]

Let me translate for you Chey.

"I fill out the AMT worksheet every year so I can bitch about it."

OK?

Ishmael

Ha.

Could be!

No one would fill out that form without needing to though. It's a bitch.

 

[richard_daily]

The democrats are getting to roll out a $1 trillion dollar plan. The republicans are going to call it a tax increase. and to an extent they'd be right.

The democrats are going to say it's just an offset plan, and to an extent they'd be right too.

The issue is the 'Alternative Minimum Tax' that is about to shaft millions of middle class taxpayers due to bracket creep. Both the democrats and republicans agree that this has to be taken care of (ie. eliminated). However, the democrats insist on offsetting the lose of revenues with new taxes. The leaked plan calls for the rich, single taxpayers with incomes over $100k and married taxpayers with incomes over $200k to be hit with a 4% pre-tax surcharge. All well and good and perfectly in keeping with the democratic policy of 'sticking it to the rich.' This is computed to recover $100 billion/year over the next 10 years.

And this is where it gets sticky. IF the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire, which they will if a democrat wins the white house in '08, only $300 billion need be recovered. So this is, in reality, a $700 billion tax hike. The republicans have a point. But, because it is intended to offset 'lost' revenues, the democrats can argue that point with equal force.

The real problem is that the Bush tax cuts have given the collection of tax revenues a shot in the arm far beyond expectations. But this has been known for years. Tax cuts, up to a point, have always led to increased tax receipts. And the deficit is shrinking faster than originally projected even in the face of the Iraq expenses.

And tax increases have always led to a slow down in the economy and consequently tax receipts.

Congress, both democrats and republicans, seem to be so addicted to spending that the thought of just making the AMT go away hasn't crossed their minds. It seems to be beyond their grasp that a reduction in spending is just as effective as increasing taxes when it comes to deficit control.

It also hasn't occured to them that as inflation continues to erode the value of the dollar that their solution only sets a new threshold to be dealt with when a married couple making $200k a year is only mid-middle class. I'm sure that those numbers may seem like heady stuff to the youngsters on the board, but those numbers are within your future.

And the whole 'stick it to the rich' mantra may sound like a good idea today, but may not have as sweet a sound in your future.



Ishmael

And the $400 billion a year might go towards...

paying off the federal deficit maybe?

 

[phrodeau]

Ha.

Could be!

No one would fill out that form without needing to though. It's a bitch.

OK, I went to the IRS website to see who has to pay the AMT, and all it offers is a worksheet.

They have neat little flowcharts for determining who dependents are or whether you can claim the Earned Income Credit, but there's nothing but worksheets for the AMT.

Maybe you have some magic insight into the tax code, or can tell who pays and who doesn't by the whites of their eyes or something. The IRS insists that the worksheet gets filled out - all filers, no exceptions.

Here's the link: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc556.html

 

[Cheyenne]

OK, I went to the IRS website to see who has to pay the AMT, and all it offers is a worksheet.

They have neat little flowcharts for determining who dependents are or whether you can claim the Earned Income Credit, but there's nothing but worksheets for the AMT.

Maybe you have some magic insight into the tax code, or can tell who pays and who doesn't by the whites of their eyes or something. The IRS insists that the worksheet gets filled out - all filers, no exceptions.

Here's the link: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc556.html

Maybe I do. On the other hand, the worksheet for line 45 isn't much different from having to do a worksheet for line 44, line 40, line 32, etc.

And unless the IRS has little goblins looking in your windows, they still have no idea if you actually filled out any of them. Worksheets do not get turned in with your tax return, only Forms do.

 

[rosco rathbone]

Show me the law!

 

[Cheyenne]

Show me the law!

Which one?