http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=auSmDnd5a_rg&refer=top_world_newsJuly 20 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush's tax advisory panel will recommend repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax, said former Senator Connie Mack of Florida, the panel's chairman.
``The consensus is that we will repeal the AMT,'' Mack told reporters during a meeting of the panel in Washington.
The AMT, originally created by Congress to ensure that wealthy people don't avoid taxes by using excessive deductions, is projected to affect 40 million Americans with incomes as low $50,000 by 2010. It is projected to raise $100 billion in revenue for the government over the next decade. Mack said the tax panel would have to take into account this shortfall as it crafts other recommendations for changes to the tax code.
Two panel members, Vice Chairman John Breaux, a former Louisiana senator, and Elizabeth Garrett, said they were concerned that repealing the minimum tax would allow some wealthy Americans to avoid all taxes. Mack said the panel would address these concerns, though he offered no specifics. The nine-member panel is holding its first public deliberations today and will make recommendations to Bush by Sept. 30. Bush, who signed into law five tax cuts totaling more than $1.85 trillion during his first term, made overhauling the tax code a priority of his second term in his Feb. 2 State of the Union address. He said the 3,000-page tax code is too complex and discourages savings.