To fix or not to fix the AMT

Re “AMT alternatives,” editorial, Nov. 8

It seems fashionable to slam the alternative minimum tax as somehow fair when it is paid by the very rich, but unfair when it is paid by the middle class. Why? In all cases, the AMT assures that people who benefit too much from tax loopholes (such as receiving a lot of their income from tax-free bonds) do pay some income tax. Middle-income people should be less likely to do these things, but when they do, I believe that it is fair to assess the AMT.

Frank Amon

Pomona

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Your editorial is right that the best fix would be an “overhaul that would simplify the tax code and provide clarity for taxpayers across the board. Such an overhaul could still be progressive . . . and still provide realistically for government operations.”

Such a plan is a bill in Congress now known as the Fair Tax. It would raise the same revenue as today and be simple, understandable and progressive because of the “prebate” -- a rebate in advance of taxes paid up to the poverty level. In addition, because it is a national sales tax to replace the income, payroll and AMT taxes, among others, the more one spends, the more taxes one pays.

It’s nonpartisan, would save the billions lost to compliance costs and help restore American international competitiveness lost owing to our outrageous tax code.

Bill Spillane

Manhattan Beach

The writer is a volunteer state director of fairtax.org.

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It’s nice to see that The Times has a sense of humor. You called the alternative minimum tax “that odd wrinkle in the tax code.” That borders on hilarious, given that the tax code is nothing but odd wrinkles.

Speaking of hilarious, the bill introduced by House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) to do away with the AMT is really laughable. Neither he nor anyone else in Congress has any intention of doing away with the AMT, as evidenced by his introducing another bill to patch it.

There is only one way to straighten out all of these wrinkles in the tax code: throw it out and replace it with a national consumption tax, i.e., the Fair Tax. If Rangel is really concerned about protecting the taxpayer, he would push for passage of this bill, which would continue government revenues at the same level and allow no one to avoid paying federal tax.

John Kozan

Glendale, Ariz.