Most of us have heard of the term Alternative Minimum Tax, Alt Min Tax, or AMT. But what is it? Alternative Minimum Tax is a tax system that parallels the standard tax systems and adds an additional level of taxation to baseline income tax for certain individuals, corporations, estates and trust. Traditional tax is adjusted for certain items and computed differently for AMT. Some of these items are depreciation, medical expenses, state taxes, certain mortgage interest, real estate and personal property taxes. AMT was first introduced in 1969 when Congressed determined that a portion of the population with high incomes, roughly one-hundred-fifty-five million taxpayers, were able to utilize tax deductions and other tax breaks to the point where they were paying almost nothing in taxes. The Reagan Administration created what we currently know as Alternative Minimum Tax that included more widespread exemptions and deductions while eliminating some of the investment deductions that only applied to the very wealthy.
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