Series 52: 6.1.3. Alternative Minimum Tax

6.1.3.  Alternative Minimum Tax

As mentioned in Chapter 1, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) is another method of calculating income tax that was created as a backstop to make sure wealthy taxpayers could not avoid paying any income tax at all. The AMT is often called a “parallel” tax system, since it is not truly an alternative, optional way of calculating income taxes. Instead, taxpayers are required to calculate their alternative minimum taxable income (AMTI) and pay the tax on this amount if it