Subject: ISO-AMT consumed college savings for kids Comment: I live in California. I paid $65K in Federal ISO-AMT in 1999. (I paid about $20K more to the state). ISO-AMT raised my total income tax to about 74% of my Adjusted Gross Income that year. I had to celan out my kids college savings plan to be able to pay the AMT. The underlying stock is now worthless (the company went bankrupt in 2001). I own a house and pay a relatively high mortgage. In the 5 filing years since I filed my 1999 returns, I have only been credited back about $2,600 of the Federal ISO-AMT. In the same time period, I received back 100% of my California ISO-AMT. Incredibly, in 2 of the last 5 years, I have been forced to make additional payment for Federal nonISO-AMT. My previously AMT payments could not be used to offset these. I am 50 years old with daughters entering college and could really use this money to help pay those costs. At the current rate, I will never see another $ of my ISO-AMT payments on now-worthless stock. I surely do hope we get some relief from Congress. |