By Tim Worstall, Contributor This is a fascinating little proposal in the WSJ from John Cochrane. Just as there is an Alternative Minimum Tax, to make sure that people cannot use all the tweaks to the tax code to end up paying an “unfair” amount, so also should there be an Alternative Maximum Tax. An amount, rate or portion of income above which someone cannot be taxed. This would, as with the current AMT, be cumulative, would include all of the various different taxes to which an income might be subjected: I like half, but the principle matters more than the number. Once the country settles on a number, each of us gets to add up everything we pay to government at every level: federal income taxes, yes, but also payroll (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) taxes, state, city and county taxes, estate taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, payroll taxes and unemployment insurance for nannies, household workers, or other employees, excise taxes, real-estate transfer taxes, and so on and on, right down to your vehicle stickers and those annoying extra taxes on your airline tickets.
Tag Archives: AMT
American Express Travel Announces 2012 Representative Excellence Award Winners
By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
American Express Travel Announces 2012 Representative Excellence Award Winners
U.S. Representative Agency Winners Honored for Superior Sales and Year-Over-Year Growth
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– American Express Travel has announced that 25 agency members of its U.S. Representative Travel Network have earned the prestigious Representative Excellence Award for 2012.
The Representative Excellence Award honors the achievements of the Representative Travel Network member agencies that have reached superior results for their concentrated effort in selling preferred suppliers and their engagement of American Express products and programs.
“We are excited to recognize these dedicated travel agent partners for their outstanding participation within our network,” said Tony Gonchar, Vice President, U.S. Retail Travel Network, and American Express Travel. “The 25 agencies selected have represented the American Express brand in an exemplary fashion and delivered extraordinary results in 2012, contributing to an exceptional year for American Express Travel and the industry overall.”
This year’s Representative Excellence Award winners are:
All Seasons -Birmingham, AL
Altour -New York City, NY
AMT – West Covina, CA
Andrew Harper – Westmont, IL
Avoya Travel – Miami, FL
Avenue Travel – West Orange, NJ
Azumano Travel – Portland, OR
Boca Express – Boca Raton, FL
Bursch Travel – Alexandria, MN
Canyon Creek – Richardson, TX
Carrousel Travel – Minneapolis, MN
CI Travel – Norfolk, VA
Corporate Travel Center – Moorpark, CA
CruisePlanners – Coral Springs, FL
E Clarke Travel – Fort Lee, NJ
Fairway Travel – Carrollton, TX
Fox World Travel – Oshkosh, WI
Gulliver Travel – Fort Worth, TX
MacNair Travel Management – Alexandria, VA
Milne Travel – Barre, VT
National Travel Systems – Lubbock, TX
Pennsylvania Travel – Paoli, PA
Prestige Travel & Cruises – Las Vegas, NV
Springdale Travel – Mobile, AL
Travelink – Nashville, TN
The Travel Team – Buffalo, NY
Williamsburg Travel – Atlanta, GA
About American Express Travel:
American Express entered the travel agency business in 1915, and today operates one of the world’s largest travel agency networks in more than 140 countries worldwide.
American Express Company (www.americanexpress.com) is a leading global payments, network and travel company founded in 1850.
Contrarian Tax Planning: Increasing Income To Take Advantage Of The AMT
By Tony Nitti, Contributor Let’s say 2013 turns out to be a niiice year for you down at the ol’ cracker factory. A little bit too nice, in fact, and you find yourself subject to the dreaded alternative minimum tax (AMT). Might I recommend a bit of contrarian advice? Consider accelerating even more income into 2013, despite the fact that it, too, might be subject to the AMT. Actually, strike that…consider accelerating more income into 2013 precisely because it, too, will be subject to the AMT. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
The Tax Help You Need to Finish Your Return Now
By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
With just over a month to go before you need to file your 2012 return, you might find yourself among millions of taxpayers who have started to realize that they’ll need more tax help than usual. As the experts behind the exclusive Motley Fool ONE Tax Center have noted, because of complicated end-of-year legislative changes, many of which applied retroactively to the entire 2012 calendar year, it’s tougher than ever to figure out which changes you have to make for the return you’re working on now, versus what you’ll need to worry about next tax season.
To give you the tax help you need, we’ve put together a list of provisions that got changed for the 2012 tax year and separated them out from the new tax laws applying in 2013. Let’s look first at the list of new things you do need now in order to get your returns filed pronto.
What changed in 2012
The biggest change from the fiscal-cliff legislation extended favorable treatment on the alternative minimum tax. Going beyond the usual annual “patch,” the new law permanently indexes a higher exemption amount to inflation, saving as many as 30 million people from having to pay AMT.
But a number of other important provisions technically expired at the end of 2011, calling into question whether they’d be renewed for 2012. The compromise reached by lawmakers renewed the following tax breaks retroactively for the 2012 tax year:
- Teachers and other educational professionals can still deduct up to $250 for money they spend on classroom expenses.
- You won’t have to include as much as $240 in mass transit or vanpool benefits if your employer provides them for you.
- Mortgage insurance premiums remain deductible as long as you earn less than the phase-out amount.
- The $500 tax credit for home-energy improvements was brought back for 2012 as well.
- If you live in a state where sales taxes are higher than state income taxes, you can still choose to take the sales taxes you pay as an itemized deduction.
- For those who are age 70 1/2 or older and want to make donations to charity from your IRA, you can still do so on a tax-free basis for gifts up to $100,000.
In addition, the higher $500,000 maximum deduction for expensing business property and several lucrative business-related credits were extended retroactively throughout 2012.
For all these provisions, your return should look like business as usual, so you shouldn’t need any new tax help beyond what you’d ordinarily get to figure these benefits out.
Looking ahead to 2013
By contrast, a number of changes won’t have any impact on your 2012 return but definitely will have a far-reaching impact this year. With implications for your current withholding or estimated quarterly payments to the IRS, you won’t want to procrastinate too long getting the tax help you need to deal with them.
Among these changes are most of the best-known provisions of the new law. The return of the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Noteworthy ETF Inflows: IYR, AMT, WY, NLY
Looking today at week-over-week shares outstanding changes among the universe of ETFs covered at ETF Channel, one standout is the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index Fund (AMEX: IYR) where we have detected an approximate $139.6 million dollar inflow — that’s a 2.6% increase week over week in outstanding units (from 77,650,000 to 79,700,000). Among the largest underlying components of IYR, in trading today American Tower Corp (NYSE: AMT) is up about 0.6%, Weyerhaeuser Co. (NYSE: WY) is off about 0.4%, and Annaly Capital Management Inc (NYSE: NLY) is lower by about 1%. For a complete list of holdings, visit the IYR Holdings page » …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Markets
Phone Towers: Pac Crest Sets Outperform On CCI, AMT, SBAC
By Eric Savitz, Forbes Staff Pacific Crest analyst Michael Bowen this morning launched coverage of the wireless tower stocks with Outperform ratings on Crown Castle, American Tower and SBA Communications.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
How the New Tax Act Affects the Alternative Minimum Tax
By Roberton Williams, Contributor In the alphabet soup of Washington, ATRA fixed the AMT, sort of. In English, the newly enacted American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 will permanently protect millions of taxpayers from having to pay the alternative minimum tax without Congress having to approve a temporary patch every year or so. It even knocks a few hundred thousand people off the AMT this year. But it still doesn’t really fix the dreaded tax. Since the first Bush tax cuts in 2001, Congress has protected millions of taxpayers from the AMT with one- or two-year patches. Each patch boosted the amount of income exempt from the tax, saving millions of households from having to pay the levy. The 2011 patch, for example, left just 4.3 million taxpayers owing AMT, down from 29 million who otherwise would have paid the additional tax. Congress never approved a permanent fix because it deemed the revenue loss too high.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
10 Worst Alternative Minimum Tax Gotcha States
By Ashlea Ebeling, Forbes StaffCongress must enact a patch to raise the alternative minimum tax exemption for the 2012 tax year, or an estimated 32 million taxpayers, up from an estimated 4 million, will owe it. (You pay the higher bill: your regular federal income tax or the AMT). Here are the 10 states with the highest percentage of AMT taxpayers in 2010.
Source: Forbes Latest
AMT Will Hit 100M People, Warns IRS Commissioner
By Robert W. Wood, Contributor100 Million BC (Photo credit: Wikipedia) This isn’t a world ending prediction, but it seems staggering all the same. It was bad enough when we learned that 30 Million Taxpayers Face Alternative Minimum Tax Right Now. Now triple that number and add another 10 million. The alternative minimum tax (AMT) can drive up […]
Source: Forbes Latest