Subject: Robbed by AMT Comment: I have been directly affected by AMT. I have worked for 18 years in California. During that time, I accumulated Incentive Stock Options from my previous employer, which I exercised at various times. The stock market dropped dramatically in 2001. Because of the current AMT tax laws, I was taxed based upon the value of his shares at the time I exercised them (approx. $60/share), not on what they are worth when I sell them. The company I worked for and bought these shares in, Clarent Corporation, committed fraud and has since gone bankrupt and is out of business. As such, I have been unemployed since October of 2001. The stock is now all but completely worthless and I recently sold 12,080 shares at $0.05/per share and received $573. The stock currently trades at $0.035/share, yet I paid approximately $40,000 for the stock, had to get a second mortgage to cover a $91,000 AMT tax bill and am now paying $19 every day to pay off this loan, in addition to my first mortgage. To have had to pay a $91,000 tax on a LOSS of $40,000 is more than ridiculous. Further, should I regain employment and claim $3000/year off of my taxes, I will never live long enough to use my tax 'credit', minus of course the interest I will have paid over the life of the second loan. I was also subject to trading windows where selling the stock was prohibited for six months, only open to trading three weeks out of every quarter, and the government encouraged me to hold on to the stock for at least one year for long-term capitol gains. Even though I have owned my house for 13 years and was paying my 30-year mortgage off at a 22-year rate, I now owe over $80,000 more then when I first purchased my house in 1991. I am one of literally thousands in this country right now who are in a similar or worse position. The citizens affected by the AMT are not looking to avoid taxes, only to pay their fair share. Please work to retroactively reform the tax code regarding the AMT. Changes to this law must be made now in order to save the savings, homes and futures of many families. These are people working on the cutting edge of technological industries that will be our future - their success will be our success. Please help. |