House Passes Alternative Minimum Tax Bill

But bill is unlikely to make it through the Senate unchanged
By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 10, 2007 6:23 AM CST
House Passes Alternative Minimum Tax Bill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, acknowledges House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., left, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Nov. 9, 2007, on the passage of legislation on the Alternative Minimum Tax as Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.,...   (Associated Press)

The House passed a sweeping tax-reform bill yesterday—shifting some $78 billion in taxes from middle-class families to the super-rich—that is expected to get little traction in the Senate and has already drawn the promise of a presidential veto. The bill would exempt middle-income families from the Alternative Minimum Tax and offset the cost by closing loopholes that benefit private equity and hedge fund managers.

Senate Democrats say that they will be able to pass a bill that provides a "patch" to limit the reach of  the AMT, the Washington Post reports, but are divided on how to pay for them. Sen. Charles Schumer, who the Post notes is chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, says that the tax rate hike on hedge funds and private equity managers is unfair for singling out a single industry for increases. (More Alternative Minimum Tax stories.)

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