18. Fewer Taxpayers Need Fear the AMT
Originally, both the Senate and the House bills called for eliminating the alternative minimum tax, a parallel tax system developed more than 40 years ago to ensure that the very wealthy paid some tax. Taxpayers who may fall into the AMT zone have to calculate their taxes twice to determine which system applies to them. In a last-minute change, though, the new law retains the individual AMT, but limit the number of taxpayers ensnared by it by significantly hiking the AMT exemption. (The new law does abolish the corporate AMT.)