Rep. Courtney Supports Fiscally Responsible Alternative Minimum Tax Relief for More than 80,000 Second District Families

Statement

Rep. Courtney Supports Fiscally Responsible Alternative Minimum Tax Relief for More than 80,000 Second District Families

Congressman Joe Courtney last evening voted for H.R. 4351, the Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act, which would prevent more than 80,639 Second Congressional District households from falling victim to the AMT as they prepare their 2007 tax returns while closing major corporate tax loopholes that cost our nation billions of dollars. The final vote was 226 -193.

"The AMT has been allowed to threaten working families for too long while multinational corporations have been permitted to skirt paying their fair share of the tax burden," stated Courtney.

Unless this patch is passed by the Senate and signed into law by the President, an estimated 444,894 taxpayers in Connecticut will be hit with AMT liability with over 93,000 taxpayers in the Second Congressional District alone. The passage of an AMT patch may save 80,639 households from the AMT.

In an effort to maintain fiscal discipline, the House passed H.R. 4351 in accordance with its self-imposed ‘pay-go' rules. The AMT relief will not add to the federal deficit.

The one year AMT fix will cost the federal government more than $50 billion over ten years, but that cost will be offset in part by closing specific tax loopholes exploited by multinational corporations and wealthy individuals using offshore banking accounts.

H.R. 4351 also expands the Refundable Child Tax Credit, which will allow 20,900 Connecticut children to be newly eligible for the credit and the parents of 62,300 Connecticut children to receive larger tax credits.

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