House Passes AMT Relief Legislation

On June 25, 2008, by a vote of 233 to 198, the House passed the Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Bill of 2008 (HR 6275). The one-year increase in the AMT exemption amount, at a ten-year cost of $61.5 billion, is fully offset by provisions providing for ordinary income taxation of carried interests of investment fund managers, raising $30.9 billion over ten years, and denying Code Sec. 199 benefits to major integrated oil and natural gas companies, raising $13.5 billion over ten years. Other revenue raisers included would limit the use of tax treaties by foreign companies, require additional information reporting of credit and debit card transactions, expand the application of a levy on certain federal payments, and adjust the due dates for corporate estimated tax payments.

The Senate has been working on extenders legislation that includes the AMT patch, under which the other extenders are paid for but the AMT patch is not. Congressional Republicans and the Administration generally oppose using offsetting revenue raisers for the AMT patch. The White House has issued a veto threat to the House bill. The House passed its separate extenders bill, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Bill of 2008 (HR 6049) on May 21, 2008, by a vote of 263 to 160. The White House also expressed concerns about the revenue raisers in that legislation. It is not clear that there are sufficient votes to pass AMT relief with revenue offsets this year.