Tax Relief Blog
House passes AMT relief with bipartisan majority – President threatens veto
On June 25, the House by a vote of 233 to 189 approved H.R.6275, the “Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008.” The bill will be sent to the Senate for consideration.
The bill would patch the alternative minimum tax (AMT) problem for 2008 by extending for one year AMT relief for nonrefundable personal credits and increasing AMT exemption amounts to $69,950 for joint filers and $46,200 for individuals. The one-year AMT patch would be fully offset with a variety of revenue raising measures, including taxing certain carried interests as ordinary income, barring large integrated oil companies from claiming the Code Sec. 199 domestic production activity deduction, freezing the Code Sec. 199 deduction at the 6% level for other producers of oil and natural gas, and requiring information returns for merchant payment card reimbursements.
On June 24, in a Statement of Administration Policy, President Bush indicated that he would veto the bill because of his strong opposition to provisions raising taxes on certain partners in partnerships and taxes on payments by U.S. subsidiaries to foreign affiliates and limiting the availability of the domestic production deduction for certain oil companies.
