Braced for a Higher Tax Bill, Some May Dodge the Bullet
By RON LIEBER and TARA SIEGEL BERNARD
NYT
The wealthiest stand to lose the most under President Obama’s proposed budget, while individuals with lower incomes could gain in many different ways.
But many of those in between — those with household incomes of $200,000 to $400,000 or so — may not see as much of a difference in their tax bills as they may have feared.
Plenty of people in this income range live in high-cost areas of the Northeast and California and stretched, rightly or wrongly, to afford their homes when real estate prices were higher. They may not consider themselves rich at all, laughable as that may seem to people earning far less in the middle of the country. But they’ve been worried sick as the president has persistently defined them as rich enough to pay more in taxes — at the exact moment when their jobs may be in danger or their small businesses or commission income may be suffering.
It turns out, however, that many of them were already subject to pretty high taxes because they were paying the alternative minimum tax. Even if the new tax increases go into effect, the amount of taxes they owe may not change much, according to Clint Stretch, the managing principal of tax policy at Deloitte L.L.C. in Washington. That’s because the amount they owe under the regular income tax system, while higher under Mr. Obama’s plan, may not push them out of A.M.T. territory, he said.
(More here.)
NYT
The wealthiest stand to lose the most under President Obama’s proposed budget, while individuals with lower incomes could gain in many different ways.
But many of those in between — those with household incomes of $200,000 to $400,000 or so — may not see as much of a difference in their tax bills as they may have feared.
Plenty of people in this income range live in high-cost areas of the Northeast and California and stretched, rightly or wrongly, to afford their homes when real estate prices were higher. They may not consider themselves rich at all, laughable as that may seem to people earning far less in the middle of the country. But they’ve been worried sick as the president has persistently defined them as rich enough to pay more in taxes — at the exact moment when their jobs may be in danger or their small businesses or commission income may be suffering.
It turns out, however, that many of them were already subject to pretty high taxes because they were paying the alternative minimum tax. Even if the new tax increases go into effect, the amount of taxes they owe may not change much, according to Clint Stretch, the managing principal of tax policy at Deloitte L.L.C. in Washington. That’s because the amount they owe under the regular income tax system, while higher under Mr. Obama’s plan, may not push them out of A.M.T. territory, he said.
(More here.)
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