Eric Satterley writes:
An immediate need is to change the alternative minimum tax recapture law. On stock options you were forced to pay the alternative minimum tax even if you exercised any options (even if you did not sell the stocks). The law was that you could recapture/apply the tax paid toward the capital gains when you sold the tax. A couple of years ago that changed and you can nolonger recapure/apply the tax paid toward capital gains if you are subject to alternative minimum tax. Net effect is that you are now double taxed on the same shares of stock and it is doubtful that a person will ever be able to recapture any of the taxes since most tax payers are now subject to alternative minimum taxes.
This is not fair and needs to be addressed immediately.
Hey Kelly — still waiting for you to expound on why the AMT is so universally hated, despite its (at least superficial) resemblance to the simplified tax systems a lot of flat/”fair” tax advocates like. (Having said that, Eric would appear to have a point on this particular double-taxation issue….)
This meay be a current additionally confusing detail about the AMT, but Congress needs to restore it to its original purpose, and only “trap” very high income taxpayers — like $1 million and up. It was never intended to apply to middle-income taxpayers.