[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 26554]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX

  (Mrs. KELLY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. KELLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to strongly urge this House to 
act before the end of the year to protect middle class families from 
the alternative minimum tax.
  When a 1993 tax increase failed to adjust the AMT exemption amounts 
for inflation, what was intended to be a tax on high-income taxpayers 
became a tax that punishes the middle class. If the middle class 
exemptions are not extended for 2006, the numbers of New Yorkers forced 
to pay the alternative minimum tax will more than quadruple to 1.6 
million families next year.
  Make no mistake about it, these are middle class taxpayers that would 
be apprehended by the AMT because we have not changed the law. Many of 
them live in the Hudson Valley that I represent.
  This is an unfair tax on middle class Hudson Valley residents who 
would be forced to pay an average of $4,000 in new taxes next year. 
This is money middle class families need to pay their own bills and put 
their own family needs in order. The last thing we should be doing is 
forcing middle class families in New York to send more of their money 
to Washington, D.C.
  Let us do the right thing for the middle class. Let us extend the AMT 
exemptions before the end of this year.

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