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Alternative Minimum Tax Patch

Date: 
February 17, 2009
Who: 
Policy Area: 
Economic Target: 
Action Type: 
Maximum Amount: 
$85.00 billion
Amount Spent: 
$80.00 billion
Deficit Impact: 
$70.00 billion

The alternative minimum tax provision in the federal tax code, while originally added to prevent a small group of high-income earners from owing little or no taxes through the taking of many deductions, has in recent years come to affect upper-middle-income earners because it lacks inflation indexing.  This alternative minimum tax "patch," which applies to 2009 only, raises the level of income that is exempt from the alternative minimum tax.     

Provisions are part of the $787 billion "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009," a set of policies designed to mitigate the effects of the economic crisis.  The act contains significant spending for direct worker assistance, infrastructure, healthcare, education, aid to states, and other areas, and tax breaks for individuals and corporations.

 

AMT Patch (in millions of dollars)
                       
Year
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2009-2019
Totals 2,054 82,720 -15,015 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 69,759

 

 

Notes: 

Positive numbers in table indicate spending, negative numbers indicate savings or revenue. Maximum amount is the peak cumulative cost of a provision over the period 2009-2019, though the provision may eventually cost less by 2019. In the case of the Alternative Minimum Tax Patch, the peak cumulative cost would occur in 2010, creating a maximum cost of approximately $85 billion. Deficit impact is the final cost of a provision from 2009-2019. Amount spent reflects CRFB calculated continuations of disbursal rates since last reported on Recovery.gov in December 2010 and extrapolated to the present by CRFB staff.

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