Like clockwork, about once a month someone challenges in Tax Court the Alternative Minimum Tax. It’s unfair, it’s too complex, it’s just plain old mean…those are just some of the arguments used against the AMT.
There’s jut one problem: The AMT is the law, and the Tax Court has held, time after time, that Congress must change it, not the Tax Court. Would today’s case be any different?
No.
The petitioners today argued, “…that although they know that the Court has no authority to usurp the role of the Congress, they would like the Court nonetheless to relieve them of their Federal income tax obligations so as to ‘make a statement’ that would spawn a thorough and complete legislative review of the alternative minimum tax.”
But they didn’t get that response. Instead, the Court noted, “The Court has consistently and repeatedly rejected challenges to proposed deficiencies based on the fairness of the alternative minimum tax.” After citing six precedents, the Court tersely rejected the petitioner’s ‘argument.’
Case: Falcone v. Commissioner, T.C. Summary 2006-139
Tags: AMT