M E M O R A N D U M

To:       Reporters and Editors

Da:      Friday, Jan. 16, 2009

Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, today made the following comment on the lack of alternative minimum tax (AMT) relief, or a “patch,” in the House of Representatives stimulus bill released today.  Grassley has worked successfully to ensure that middle-class taxpayers are protected from the AMT, which they were never intended to face.

“The tax bill released by the House today does not contain an alternative minimum tax patch for this year.  If the alternative minimum tax patch is not enacted into law, millions of middle-class Americans won’t get much of the tax benefits that they appear to be getting under the House bill, because the alternative minimum tax will take these benefits away.  It makes no sense to give tax cuts with one hand and take them away with another.  I’ll fight to have the alternative minimum tax patch for 2009 included in the Senate version of the stimulus bill, so that millions of middle-class Americans won’t have their tax cuts taken away before they ever receive them.”