From what I hear, the impact of AMT is growing to the point where people in the $100K income range will be the primary people hit by the tax (i.e., upper middle income segment). That would seem to over many of the people that stretched to get into over priced starter homes and trade-up homes. Here’s the URL and a paragraph from a study done by the Congressional Budget Office:
“Until 2000, less than 1 percent of taxpayers paid the AMT in any year. Under current law, however, the number of taxpayers affected by the AMT will grow from just over 1 million in 2001 to nearly 30 million in 2010 before falling back to about 23 million in 2014 after the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.”
“Twenty percent of all taxpayers–and 40 percent of married couples–will owe AMT in 2010. AMT receipts in 2010 will total about $90 billion, roughly 7 percent of total individual income tax revenue.”
“Married couples filing jointly are more likely to have AMT liability than unmarried taxpayers with similar incomes. For example, CBO projects that about 95 percent of married taxpayers with AGI between $100,000 and $200,000 will owe AMT in 2010, compared with 84 percent of single filers in the same income category.”
“Over the coming decade, a growing number of taxpayers will become liable for the AMT. In 2010, if nothing is changed, one in five taxpayers will have AMT liability and nearly every married taxpayer with income between $100,000 and $500,000 will owe the alternative tax. Rather than affecting only high-income taxpayers who would otherwise pay no tax, the AMT has extended its reach to many upper-middle-income households. As an increasing number of taxpayers incur the AMT, pressures to reduce or eliminate the tax are likely to grow. “
