Author's articles
Thinking of Buying a Home? Watch Out for the AMT "Bite."
By George Bauernfeind · 12 years ago
Economists are saying the real estate market may finally be bottoming out. New construction activity is picking up, as are resales of existing homes. There remains a significant of foreclosure activity, but to a buyer ...
Alternative Minimum Tax Fails to Hit the Wealthy With any Real Impact
By George Bauernfeind · 12 years ago
Everyone knows the history of the Alternative Minimum Tax – its intended purpose was to ensure that the wealthy were paying at least something like what today is called their "fair share" of taxes. But ...
IRS Statistics Show the Alternative Minimum Tax Decreasing – What Gives?
By George Bauernfeind · 12 years ago
Periodically the IRS publishes what it calls its Statistics of Income Bulletin. This document reports data that has been compiled from all of the tax returns filed for the previous year, including data on the ...
Year-End Tax Extenders – Where’s The Patch?
By George Bauernfeind · 12 years ago
Every year at about this time Congress starts thinking about what tax laws will expire on December 31, and what it really needs to be doing about these. Of the 65 various tax provisions that ...
Should You Accelerate or Defer Income to Minimize Your Alternative Minimum Tax?
By George Bauernfeind · 12 years ago
In connection with year-end tax planning, much has been written about accelerating or deferring deductions. The sometimes-overlooked question of accelerating or deferring income deserves just as much attention, especially for those in the Alternative Minimum ...
IRS Announces 2012 Inflation Adjustments, Once Again Highlighting the Need for Another Alternative Minimum Tax "Patch"
By George Bauernfeind · 12 years ago
As it does in the fall of every year, the IRS has calculated the effect that inflation has had on the income tax brackets that are used to compute the individual income tax, and it ...
IRS Releases 2011 Version of Form 6251 - Time to Start Thinking about Year-End Tax Planning
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
The IRS recently released its 2011 version of the Form 6251 – Alternative Minimum Tax – Individuals. With year-end only a few months away, this serves as a timely reminder that anyone stuck in the ...
Who Can Benefit from the Alternative Minimum Tax Credit?
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
With few exceptions, when the Alternative Minimum Tax is paid it is money out the door - gone forever. No surprise here since this is the way taxes work. What is a surprise to many ...
Incorporate Your Small Business and Avoid the Alternative Minimum Tax
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
The Alternative Minimum Tax applies both to corporations as well as to individuals. While many of the AMT rules are the same, there are some significant differences between the two. One of the more significant ...
Double the Worry! - State Alternative Minimum Tax
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
A number of states have their own version of an Alternative Minimum Tax – one that is imposed at the state level, separate and distinct from the Federal Alternative Minimum Tax. While a state AMT ...
Tax Court Denies Challenge to the Alternative Minimum Tax, Revealing Costly AMT Taxpayer Errors
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
On occasion a frustrated taxpayer will go to Tax Court in an attempt to convince a judge that the Alternative Minimum Tax was never intended to apply to them. As in the case of Fritz ...
401(k) Roth Conversion: Alternative Minimum Tax Payers Need to Give this Serious Consideration
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
Recent tax law changes have opened up a whole new area of tax planning around employee retirement plans. Individuals with IRA accounts always have had the opportunity to do a Roth conversion, but now for ...
Exercising Employee Stock Options – Beware of the Alternative Minimum Tax
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
With the stock market having nearly doubled over the past two years, many individuals holding stock options that they received from their employers are giving serious consideration to cashing out the value in these options. ...
I Am Retired – Does the AMT Apply to Me?
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
Of all the different types of AMT taxpayers, retirees typically are the most surprised when they find themselves stuck in the Alternative Minimum Tax. Unfortunately, there is no "age exemption" for the AMT – an ...
I Am an Investor – Does the AMT Apply to Me?
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
Every taxpayer with an investment portfolio of any size definitely needs to be concerned about the Alternative Minimum Tax. Certain types of investments, and the income earned on those investments, are likely to trigger the ...
I Own and Operate a Small Business – Does the AMT Apply to Me?
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
Among the many paperwork burdens small business owners must endure is the filing and paying of income taxes for the business. Even if no taxes currently are due because of losses, accurately computing and tracking ...
Roth IRA Conversions and the Alternative Minimum Tax
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
Everyone with a traditional IRA should be looking into whether converting to a Roth IRA might make sense for them, because the ability to shelter future earnings from taxation is a very attractive feature of ...
A Hidden Killer: the AMT Exemption Phaseout
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
In computing the Alternative Minimum Tax, a taxpayer is allowed a certain "exemption amount," similar in concept to the standard deduction and personal exemptions allowed in calculating the Regular Tax. A surprise that hits a ...
Last-Minute AMT Calculations and Planning
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
The last-minute tax relief bill signed just a few weeks ago may have saved many from being pulled into the Alternative Minimum Tax for the first time, but what about the four million individual taxpayers ...
AMT "Patched" Once Again – This Year’s Fix Also Includes 2011
By George Bauernfeind · 13 years ago
A last-ditch effort on the part of liberal Democrats in the House to send the big tax cut extension bill back to the Senate has failed. With last night’s favorable vote, an AMT Patch for ...