9/28 Mortgage interest is tax-deductible for federal and state taxes. Is it
also deductible for the items on my paycheck like Social Security,
Medicare, etc.?
\_ No. You get to pay the middle-class regressive tax whether you
like it or not. Call us back when you get past that AMT wall, boyo.
\_ i dont understand AMT. when i am about to pay $0 tax dollars..
all of a sudden i have to pay $8000?
\_ AMT is a minimum amount of tax you should pay based on
some formula. So, for instance, if you make $300K and
have $300K in deductions (let us say stock losses) you
still have to pay the minimum tax (and not $0).
\_ AMT was designed to prevent the ultra-rich from paying
no tax. Unfortunately it has never been indexed to
inflation, and so it increasingly hits the middle class.
This is only going to get worse over time, but for some
reason the Republican leadership seems reluctant to fix it.
\_ Well, the R leadership is too busy spending like drunken
sailors (apologies to sailors). But if they tried it,
the D's would say "they're trying to protect the rich
again!" -emarkp
\_ Apology accepted. I used to be a sailor, and drank
plenty, but I never spent more than I could afford.
\_ You also spent /your own money/. Which is another
important difference. -emarkp
\_ For what it's worth, I believe the Democrats want
to fix the AMT. It may even be in the platform,
but I don't recall.
\_ The AMT is primarily a problem for voters in
Democratic states. Why would the Republicans rush
to fix it? Let CA and NY vote Republican, and the
AMT will get fixed in a jiff.
\_ No, the Republicans want the AMT to explode and
hurt people. Then they can repeal the whole thing,
no questions asked.
\_ and by not removing the AMT, they have a
non-exploding budget for years to come :P
\_ No one wants to "remove" the AMT, except
for maybe the Grover Norquist wing of the
Republican party. What it needs is to
fixed so that it doesn't hurt the already
battered and shrinking middle class.
\_ yerright. I amend that to:
and by not fixing the AMT, they have a
non-exploding projected budget deficit
for years to come
\_ No, I think you're wrong. To correct it
would be simple, just like the fixing the
estate tax. And now that tax is on the
brink of being permanently off the books.
The fate of the AMT will be the same, but
unlike the "death tax," it will actually
hurt people.
hurt people first before they kill it.
\_ do you think the GOPers will be
laughing their asses off when the
upper-middle-class Democrats are
paying the higher taxes they wanted?
\_ Oh dear me yes. They are expecting
a rash of people going to the GOP
when this happens. |
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