Under the tax law, certain tax benefits can significantly reduce a taxpayer’s regular tax amount. The alternative minimum tax (AMT) applies to taxpayers with high income by setting a limit on those benefits. It helps to ensure that those taxpayers pay at least a minimum amount of tax. The AMT is the excess of the tentative minimum tax over the regular tax. Therefore, the AMT is owed only if the tentative minimum tax is greater than the regular tax. The tentative minimum tax is figured separately from the regular tax. In general, compute the tentative minimum tax by:
1. “Computing taxable income eliminating or reducing certain exclusions and deductions, and taking into account differences with respect to when certain items are taken into account in computing regular taxable income and alternative minimum taxable income (AMTI)”
2. “Subtracting the AMT exemption amount”
3. “Multiplying the amount computed in (2) by the appropriate AMT tax rates”
4. “Subtracting the AMT foreign tax credit” (IRS.gov, 2016) (p. 1)
The federal tax law sets the AMT exemption amounts and AMT tax rates. Taxpayers can use the special capital gain rates in effect for the regular tax if they are lower than the AMT tax rates that would otherwise apply. Some tax credits that reduce regular tax liability do not reduce AMT tax liability. If a taxpayer is not liable for AMT this year, but he or she paid AMT in one or more previous years, they may be eligible to take a special minimum tax credit against their
Section 61 of the Internal Revenue Code defines income as “income from whatever source derived unless otherwise excluded” (2014, IRC Code). In determining income, several key concepts have evolved from this definition. Explain the following concepts, and provide at least one example of each. Explain which concept you think is most beneficial from a taxpayer’s point of view and which concept is most beneficial from IRS’s point of view.
The pool cost the petitioner over $19,000, and we cannot accept his contention that such amount was spent primarily for therapy for his leg in view of the limited need for such therapy and the alternatives which were then available.
The American Revolution began when all of the laws and taxes were being passed on to the Americans. The Americans eventually fought for and won their independence by rebelling against the British Parliament. Britain's laws made for the Americans were only an advantage to the British, which was unfair.
Use Tax: prevents avoidance of sales tax (same rate as sales tax- use or consumption of personal property)
Taxes are very argumentative when coming to what everyone considers equal. There are many different tax options, in which all people have different opinions on. These taxes include a value-added tax, progressive tax, flat tax, and national sales tax. I believe getting rid of our current tax system, and implementing a flat tax in America would be the best option. Different sides of politics, each have pros/ cons for each of the different tax systems, but with just the right tax system things could improve and more things could be equally agreed on between the politicians.
(A) ADJUSTED GROSS INCOME: This is a measure of income and it used to establish eligibility for financial benefits. It is calculated as gross income from taxable sources minus allowable deductions. Adjusted gross income is important to individual income taxation because it controls individual qualification for numerous deductions and credits. Besides, it can affect individual eligibility for retirement plans.
| 19 |LO 4 |Dependency exemption: exceptions to the citizenship or | |New | |
A Health Savings Account (HSA) plan requires a high-deductible medical insurance policy, which means that the premiums on the policy will be less than for a low-deductible policy. The contributions to the HSA are deductible for AGI, which reduces the nondeductible amount of itemized deductions subject to certain limitations, and the taxpayer does not have to itemize to obtain the deduction. The HSA distributions pay for the deductible medical expenses and they are not included in gross income. Also, the income earned on the HSA is not included in gross income if it is used to pay medical expenses not covered by the high-deductible plan.
Tax deductions are allowed to taxpayers only if specifically authorized by the Internal Revenue Code. Deductions allowable to individual taxpayers fall into four categories: trade or business expenses, expenses incurred for the production of income, losses, and personal expenses. In addition to discussing the general requirements for deductibility for each of the above types of expenses, this chapter also discusses the tax treatment of many commonly encountered expenses incurred by taxpayers, from trade or business expenses such as rent, insurance, interest, taxes, bad debts, etc. to employee business expenses (travel, transportation, etc.) to
A public policy that is a direct impact to local government and its citizens is the Maryland Tax Rain. This recent public policy was implemented in my state of Maryland just a couple of years ago and in my County, this is a new tax fee. This policy has been a controversial proposal since it was proposed on April 2013 by Governor Martin O’Malley. The tax’s purpose is to require local governments to charge a stormwater remediation fee to pay for removing pollutants from rainwater before it reaches the Chesapeake Bay. (Johnson & Wiggins, 2015).
The alternative minimum tax (AMT) was created to prevent high income level individuals from using deductions and credits to avoid paying federal income taxes (Tritz, 2015). Due to inflation AMT now spreads to include more individuals beyond the highest-income taxpayers and straying from its original objective. Consequently, AMT has affected the economy by over-complicating the already complex tax code, creating an additional obligation for taxpayers, and burdening more taxpayers than its original intention. This relates to our course content, which includes the calculation of AMT, the differences between AMT and TMT, the differences between AMT and the regular tax rate, and disallowance rules under AMT.
Many debates have been waged over the decades on what will be taxed, on who shall be taxed and how taxes are collected. Since the 16th Amendment was ratified in 1913, the debate has intensified, centering on how high to make the income tax rate. Most Americans were not concerned since the Amendment was sold to them as something that would only affect corporations and the rich. With ever increasing fervor these corporations created lobbyists to convince Congress to exempt them from some or all of the income tax. The big breakthrough in this was taxing the worker directly with payroll taxes during World War II. This method of collecting income tax was sold to Americans as temporary, but Congress has extended it
Revenue generated through tax receipts ideally should exceed annual costs on various government operations. Moreover, the economic considerations involving amendment of Internal Revenue Codes for various depreciation deductions for purchase of business property and research/development deductions credits1. The second consideration, referred to, as social consideration give tax benefits to the employers encouraging health insurance and deduction for charitable contributions by employees as well as private companies. The equity considerations enable individuals or corporations to avoid the effect of double taxation on their taxable income. This could be necessarily ensured by deducting state and local taxes from Gross Income. The credit or deduction for certain foreign taxes and deductions for dividend received by corporations to avoid triple taxation. The
It is critical to understand that the transaction events which give rise to timing differences are economic in nature and therefore have economic consequences. The question then becomes how to best reflect those economic consequences in the financial statements. Inter-period income tax allocation considers the tax consequences of transaction events such as revenue, expenses, gains, and losses and associates these items with the period in which these events are recognized. In other words, inter-period tax allocation is consistent with the basic tenets of accrual accounting. Underlying this method is the understanding that there is a direct economic relationship between identifiable transactions reflected in the financial statements and related income tax effects (Arthur et al., 1984). Therefore, each transaction has a tax effect.
We have all heard the famous quote by Benjamin Franklin who stated, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” (“Benjamin Franklin Quotes”) We find this to be true as we begin working and feel the pain of money being taken from our paychecks. Then we face the chore of having to file income taxes yearly. Although there are many taxes we are subject to, most people are referring to federal income tax when they complain about taxes. There has been debate for decades about the current system but there has been no agreement on how to fix it. The United States currently has a progressive tax code which means people pay taxes according to their earnings. This has been in place since the time of Abraham Lincoln. An alternative