A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday introduced a bill calling for the death of the stealth tax that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have criticized.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), ranking Republican and former committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and three other committee members introduced legislation to fully repeal the alternative minimum tax (AMT) as of 2007.
"This bill is really a bellwether for one of the Finance Committee's biggest priorities this year. This Congress intends to provide tax relief to middle-income Americans in a fiscally responsible way, and the AMT is the right place to start," Sen. Baucus said in a statement.
The bill is similar to one the group introduced in 2005.
On the House side, Charles Rangel (D-NY), the new chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, has said repeatedly that fixing the AMT is a priority.
The AMT imposes a higher bill on taxpayers than the regular tax code. The tax, originally intended for the wealthy, now threatens to catch tens of millions of middle-class taxpayers unless lawmakers increase the AMT adjusted gross income exemption levels, since the original levels were never adjusted for inflation.
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