Middle class faces quick impact from fiscal cliff in form of alternative minimum tax

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/middle-class-faces-quick-impact-from-fiscal-cliff-in-form-of-alternative-minimum-tax/2012/11/04/e1ec0636-2523-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_story.html

The best hope for a deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff” may lie with the alternative minimum tax, an obscure provision of the tax code that is about to become alarmingly relevant to millions of middle-class taxpayers.

Unless Congress acts by the end of the year, more than 26 million households will for the first time face the AMT, which threatens to tack $3,700, on average, onto taxpayers’ bills for the current tax year. Because those people have never paid the AMT, they have no idea they are in its crosshairs — put there by a broader stalemate over tax policy that has kept Congress from limiting the AMT’s reach.

Forget about the much-publicized tax hikes set to take effect for 2013 — if you have a couple of children and annual income over $75,000, chances are good that your taxes are on track to go up substantially for 2012.

Residents of high-cost urban areas, including Washington, would be hit hardest, with about 2 million households in Maryland, Virginia and the District in line to face the AMT for the first time, by official estimates.

[rgbecker]

1. Anti AMT talk is just more Anti-government GOP crap.

The claim is that suddenly millions of "Middle Class" people are going to have pay a lot of taxes because of the AMT. First, as this excerpt explains you have to have income of over $75,000. Remember median income is about $50,000. Then the AMT only affects those who because of deductions, loopholes and Bush tax cut breaks on Capital Gains and Interest income are paying so little that even Congress realized they needed to have at least a minimum tax to support our government. Putting out an average number like $3700 that "Taxpayers" will have to pay because of this tax when in fact the same article says that only 26 million households will be affected (1 in 5) is just more crap from the media which is apparently making a hell of a lot more money than most of the households in the country.

That said, it still could be that Romney's accountants figured out a way around even that.