Rep. Courtney: Nearly 100,000 Second District Residents Find AMT Protection in House Passed Bill

Press Release

Rep. Courtney: Nearly 100,000 Second District Residents Find AMT Protection in House Passed Bill

Congressman Joe Courtney voted today to provide nearly 100,000 Second Congressional District residents with Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) relief for tax year 2008. Congressman Courtney voted for H.R. 6275, the Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008, which would protect 25 million Americans with AMT relief by providing a one-year patch.

An estimated 97,759 AMT tax returns are expected to be filed in the Second Congressional District during tax year 2008.

"Connecticut's families simply cannot afford to be sucker-punched by the AMT, which is an errant tax policy from the past that haunts working families," stated Courtney. "My vote provides immediate protection to the middle class, who through no fault of their own, are being hit with the AMT in larger numbers each year and offsets the costs by closing certain tax loopholes, including taking back taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil."

Click here to see how the AMT and the relief legislation will impact the State of Connecticut and each of the five Congressional Districts.

The bill would extend AMT relief for nonrefundable personal credits and by increasing the AMT exemption amount to $69,950 for joint filers and $46,200 for individuals. This proposal is estimated to cost $61.52 billion over 10 years.

The AMT relief legislation follows House Democrats imposed ‘pay-go' rules meaning that all new federal spending must be offset by spending cuts elsewhere so as not to increase the federal deficit.

The legislation provides one-year relief from the AMT without adding to the federal deficit by closing loopholes in the tax code, encouraging tax compliance, and repealing excessive government subsidies given to oil companies.

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