House Passes Alternative Minimum Tax Bill

The House passed a sweeping tax-reform bill yesterday—shifting some $78 billion in taxes from middle-class families to the super-rich—that is expected to get little traction in the Senate and has already drawn the promise of a presidential veto. The bill would exempt middle-income families from the Alternative Minimum Tax and offset the cost by closing loopholes that benefit private equity and hedge fund managers.

Senate Democrats say that they will be able to pass a bill that provides a "patch" to limit the reach of  the AMT, the Washington Post reports, but are divided on how to pay for them. Sen. Charles Schumer, who the Post notes is chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, says that the tax rate hike on hedge funds and private equity managers is unfair for singling out a single industry for increases. (More Alternative Minimum Tax stories.)