>Dear Friends,
Last week, I introduced the “Individual AMT Repeal Act of 2009” bill, which ends the stealth tax on American families. In previous years Congress has “patched” the AMT, but this method leaves many taxpayers uncertain about whether they will fall into the AMT trap each year.
According to the Urban Institute/Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, if Congress fails to act, in 2010, the AMT will ensnare 33.4 million taxpayers, or roughly 35 percent of all individual filers who pay income tax. This is an 854% increase in the number of taxpayers affected by the AMT since 2006. My proposal to repeal the AMT will rescue taxpayers falling victim to a tax created in the 1960s to target the wealthy who were using loopholes to avoid paying any taxes. I think most Americans will agree that they are paying their fair share in taxes, thus making an arcane ‘gotcha tax’ duplicative and irrelevant for millions of Americans.
Rather than reform the tax code to insure that the wealthiest taxpayers paid into the system, Congress created a parallel tax structure and never indexed it for inflation, adding hundreds of pages of complexity to an already convoluted process. Since 2001, Congress has recognized the devastating effect this tax has on American families, and has moved to ‘patch’ the AMT. I propose we eliminate this tax completely to provide permanent relief for taxpayers.
The 5th District of New Jersey is a prime case study of how the AMT affects Americans. According to the most recent tax statistics on the number of taxpayers burdened by the AMT, our district ranks 7th out of 435 congressional districts.
Throughout my tenure in Congress, I have consistently fought for tax relief. I am continuing this fight in the 111th Congress. This tax relief legislation will put more money back into the hands of American workers to further create jobs and promote economic growth, which we can all agree is essential in the current economic climate.
Sincerely,
Scott Garrett
Member of Congress