05/26/05 Crapo wants AMT repealed

Senator Mike Crapo feels that its time to do something about the individual Alternative Minimum Tax and he doesn't want another patch. What started 35 years ago as a way to catch upper income Americans who were paying no taxes has landed in the lap of today's middle class taxpayers. CRAPO "Next year the alternative minimum tax will hit not just three and a half million families but 20.5 million families and its estimated by the year 2015 minimum tax will be hitting somewhere between 40 and 70 percent of all taxpayers. And it's not just a small tax bill. The average last year was six thousand dollars new taxes." Six thousand Idaho farmers and landowners are paying this tax now. But if you eliminate the AMT it means the federal government loses tax money at a time when it's running record deficits. So how do you recoup the 600 billion tax dollars that would be lost over the next ten years. CRAPO "Raise taxes on income which of course in my opinion is not a good solution. Phase it out slowly so that we don't have that massive an impact over that period of time. Keep it in place but adjust it so that it does actually only hit high income taxpayers and reduce its impact that way." By high income he means those with a one million dollar adjusted gross income. Crapo says repeal is the best option, but for Congress to do nothing is the worst thing that can happen. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott