2006 White House Budget Won't Address AMT

The 2006 budget reportedly will not address the hot-burner issue of revamping or eliminating the controversial alternative minimum tax or other tax reforms, but will allow President Bush's recently appointed tax reform panel to tackle them. According to Tax Analysts, the bipartisan tax reform panel is expected instead to examine tax reform options that will make the code simpler and fairer. The panel is supposed to make recommendations to Treasury Secretary John Snow by July 31. In her recent report to Congress, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson recommended the repeal of the AMT, which she described as the biggest problem of the Internal Revenue Code. However, costs to fix the AMT are estimated to be roughly $700 billion.