Posted: Aug 09, 2005 By: Leslie M Marvin

Subject: Repeal or Modification of the AMT

Comment: I am a widowed taxpayer living in New York City -- the most highly taxed jurisdiction in the country. I have the good fortune to hold a "well paying" job with one of our Financial Institutions located in NYC. I understand that modifying or eliminating the AMT is being studied and among the "solutions" for making any change in the AMT "tax neutral", disallowing deductions for state and local taxes on the Federal tax return has been proposed. I would like to ask: since when does the government replace a tax which is an unintended windfall for the U.S. government and has had the unintended consequence of overtaxing the middle class, with an equally unfair substitute for those who live and work in high local tax jurisdictions? The so called tax cuts by the Rebublican congress are a cruel joke for many "well off" but not "wealthy" citizens. Many of the most highly taxed jurisdictions in the nation are in that situation because these states provide to the country at large services that other states do not sustain. New Hampshire does not shoulder the cost of immigration to the U.S. (a national policy, nor the cost of the U.N. (Ditto), major embassies and consulates,nor asylum for political refugees (Ditto). The largest cities around the world, including in the U.S., have high concentrations of the poor and displaced. The U.S. is no exception. As a widow, I have no deductions for dependents (not even myself). My children are grown and I have looked forward to a time of enjoying the fruits of a lifetime of work. The AMT forces me to pay so much tax that now no year goes by that I do not owe an additional chunk of taxes over and above my withholding -- already at the maximum level in my tax braket. For 2004, the AMT cost $11,000 more than the already highest tax bracket. In spite of the ladder of tax rate levels, I pay a full 30% of my taxable income. I pay an additional 12% in State and Local taxes. I pay the maximum Social Security tax, $18,000 in real estate taxes ... and this does not take into consideration the sales tax of 8.265% on everything I buy including most necessities. The government may drive me from my life long home in New York. It is ironic that this nation that has been so philosophically committed to "free enterprise", the "American Dream" and so fiercely against the communist model of govering, drifts every day further away from the former and closer to the latter. In China, folks engaged in business are taxed 70% of their income. They only own 30% of their houses. If you count all the hidden taxes paid on telecommunication, gasoline, cigarettes, etc., how far away from that are we? One might say but in China owns the "means of production" and the land. Again, if citizens are taxed so much that they are forced to sell their homes and move in order to lead a graceful life or retirement, how different is our government? What about the idea of cutting expenses to fund the cut in the AMT? Pushing more of the Social Services and health care expenses onto the states doesn't count. That is just a shameful and shameless sham. It will just increase our local taxes by the same amount or more of the cut in Federal taxes as it did in the 1980's.