U.S. Rep. Kendrick B. Meek’s (D-FL) Congressional Record Statement in Support of the Bipartisan AMT Bill

 

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Kendrick B. Meek (D-FL) entered the following statement into the Congressional Record after the House passed the Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act by a vote of 233 to 189:

“I am pleased to be a co-sponsor to this bill that will give Alternative Minimum Tax Relief to those families in my district and the entire State of Florida who will be unfairly hit with this tax in 2008.

“While the AMT was not intended to burden our working families, now in 2008 it does.   Initially, the AMT applied to fewer than 20,000 taxpayers. In 2007, it applied to 4.2 million taxpayers.  By 2008, up to 26 million taxpayers are projected to be subject to the AMT.  Moreover, it is the middle- to upper-middle-income taxpayers who are the targets of this tax.  It is our married taxpayers and larger families that are especially going to fall under this tax.

“An astounding increase in the number of working families in Florida will be hurt by the AMT in 2008 if something is not done.  It is projected that over six times the number of working families will be hurt by the AMT in my State of Florida in 2008 than were hurt by this tax in 2005. In 2005, there were 161,000 AMT returns filed in the State of Florida.  However, in 2008, it is estimated that 956,000 AMT returns will be filed in Florida - a more than six times increase between 2005 and 2008.

“In 2007, Florida ranked seventh in the number of returns that were caught with the Alternative Minimum Tax burden.  However, in 2008, Florida is projected to rank fifth in the number of returns caught with the AMT.  So even in the one year, 2007 to 2008, the number of working families in Florida caught with the AMT has increased tremendously.

“Originally, the AMT was intended to cover only America’s high-income taxpayers to ensure that they pay at least a minimum amount of federal taxes.   But now, it is not this group that will be the most adversely affected by the AMT. It is our hard-working families - over 950,000 hard-working families in Florida alone that will be hit unintentionally and unfairly with this tax.  This is not what the AMT was intended to do, and it is time for those families in Florida and elsewhere to get badly needed relief from this tax.”

U.S. Rep. Kendrick B. Meek represents the 17^th Congressional District of Florida which includes parts of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. He serves as the lone Floridian sitting on the House Committee on Ways and Means, and also sits on the House Armed Services Committee.

-30-