Dump AMT

If you are not familiar with AMT, it stands for Alternative Minimum Tax. Congress enacted this bit of nonsense in 1969. The idea was that everyone should pay at least a minimum of taxes. Inflation pushes more and more folk into that position so that it is predicted that in 2012 34 million tax payers will be hit by AMT. That is one fourth of all tax returns. These folk have no tax liability at all but must pay the AMT. Dumb.

Almost half of individual tax return show no liability. Thus Congress is giving tax breaks and incentives with one hand and taking them back with the other. One set of rules that apply to all taxpayers should be sufficient without AMT confusing the issue.

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Here’s another dumb idea from the Governor of Maine, Paul LePage, who is proposing to exempt all pension income from state income tax. Apparently he thinks that will keep old people from from Maine to Florida or Texas. His justification is helping senior citizens. It also effectively raises taxes for all others in his state. Good grief, we leave Wisconsin for the south because it’s warmer. Don’t you think folk from Maine do the same?

It’s rather like a previous town I served as pastor where the mayor, community president or whatever her title was who strangely appointed me and others to a zoning board. The idea given to us was to create a tax break for seniors living in a particular place. The tax break was they would just pay for community services: garbage pickup, water and sewer etc, but not other real estate taxes; or they wouldn’t have to pay school taxes. This was supposed to be a great boon to the community by their spending money in town. Another town had done this and she thought we should follow. I thought that it was a strange and perhaps illegal idea and everyone benefits from good schools, if you have children in them or not. Others on the board agreed and we rejected the idea. That was our last meeting and a new board with a slightly different name was established. Oh yes, the nearby community who did have that arrangement did get into trouble over its legality.