The AMT in 2007
On December 19, 2007,
Congress passed and the President has
indicated he plans to sign the bill titled
the “Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2007.”
The bill has two particular items of
interest to AMT:
First, the tax exemption amount is changed
to:
-
$66,250 for Married Filing Joint
taxpayers;
-
$33,125 for Married Filing Separate
taxpayers; and
-
$44,350 for all other taxpayers.
Second, the nonrefundable personal credits
that offset the AMT in 2006 will continue to
offset the AMT for 2007.
This AMT “patch” stipulated that payment for
such would be retroactive in 2008, during
consideration of legislation that would
extend three dozen popular tax provisions
set to expire December 31.
Of the Congressional comments, Dennis
Cardoza, House Member from California , said
it best, “If George Washington had looked
across the river and seen all those redcoats
and turned tail, we would not have the
country we have today. Sometimes you just
have to do what is right.”
IR-2007-202
The Internal Revenue Service announced it
will immediately begin the final
reprogramming steps for its income-tax
processing systems to prepare for the
upcoming tax season following the final
passage of the Alternative Minimum Tax
“patch”.
“Our people will do everything they can to
quickly update our systems for this major
change and make this filing season as smooth
as possible for everyone,” said Linda Stiff,
IRS Acting Commissioner. “Our goal is to
process tax returns accurately and to issue
refunds to taxpayers as quickly as
possible.”
The AMT and AMT-related tax calculations
affect a number of core IRS processing
systems that will need to be updated. The
IRS is continuing to aggressively explore
options for the 2008 filing season in order
to minimize the impact of processing delays
on taxpayers.
To help the tax professional and software
communities prepare for the upcoming filing
season, revised copies of the 12 tax forms
impacted by the AMT legislation will be
posted to
irs.gov within 72 hours after the AMT
patch is signed into law.
