The Alternative Minimum Tax...

[Dinner]

At this point I don't think posting the explination for a third time will improve your reading comprehension at all. It's been posted twice already (including once immediately above your previous post) so you can either read one of those posts or **** off.

[Aeson]

Divorce litigation is a critical sector of our economy.

[giblets]

Other interesting facts:

1) My marginal tax rate is 52.9%
2) My marriage penalty is 4.7% of my AGI (if we had lived together, each earned the same amount of money as we did, but simply not have been married, then we would have 4.7% more of our AGI after taxes)

a) at a marginal tax rate of 52.9%, what is the likelihood that the US will lose the labor of a productive medical physicist when we have a child?
b) given the penalty of 4.7% of AGI, I am now seriously considering getting divorced for tax purposes. Is this some kind of perverse social engineering?

You want to get divorced just for money? What the hell?

[Al B. Sure!]

b) given the penalty of 4.7% of AGI, I am now seriously considering getting divorced for tax purposes. Is this some kind of perverse social engineering?

Oh man this would be a great satire of your type.

Since your wife makes more than you, maybe she would be better off divorced, too.

[KrazyHorse]

BASE ONLY

[ColdWizard]

Yeah, that eems to be a combination of NY state not allowing a deduction for business interest payments for high earners (!), a high degree of leverage in his business (which being real estate is normal) and the AMT disallowing his deduction for state and local taxes.

This part is my favorite:

Mr. Ross said he asked his accountant what he could do. “He said, ‘Fire everyone here and move to Florida,’ ” according to Mr. Ross. He employs 10 people in his New York office.

[dannubis]

BASE ONLY

Really ...

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I am completely confused here. What does an ATM cash machine have to do with taxes and the alternative minimum tax?

[giblets]

You must get confused a lot.

[MRT144]

a) I have no problem with paying 35% of my earnings in taxes.
b) I have a problem with most of the US (including the middle class, broadly defined) paying very little in taxes, leading to enormous budget deficits
c) I have a problem with an idiotic tax system that can't manage to collect 35% without applying marginal rates of 53%. So should you, because I'm very serious about the chances of this leading to the withdrawal from the labor force of my wife.
d) I have a problem with the government sticking its nose into my marriage and encouraging me to get divoced

Would you really get divorced or have your wife stop working out of spite for the tax code

[KrazyHorse]

How is it spite, you silly person? It's me responding to incentives.

The legal benefits of marriage are relatively small. Meanwhile, the enormous tax wedge being placed between the secondary earner and consumption is a real disincentive for her to continue to work.

[MRT144]

How is it spite, you silly person? It's me responding to incentives.

The legal benefits of marriage are relatively small. Meanwhile, the enormous tax wedge being placed between the secondary earner and consumption is a real disincentive for her to continue to work.

It seems taking the most drastic option available, which is total withdrawal from workforce. Maybe she could get a lower paying and more healthy law job.

And the divorce was the spiteful part. Dissolution of a marriage to save on taxes seems kind of spiteful towards marriage and taxes.

Maybe spite isn't the right word.

[KrazyHorse]

1) law job? Wtf? She's a medical physicist.
2) I earn a substantial majority of our pay, and with the high marginal rate we face, the impact of her quitting on our lifestyle would limited. Also, I see nothing radical in choosing to tear up a piece of paper costing me a substantial fraction of my income and providing largely symbolic benefits.

[Al B. Sure!]

1) law job? Wtf? She's a medical physicist.
2) I earn a substantial majority of our pay, and with the high marginal rate we face, the impact of her quitting on our lifestyle would limited. Also, I see nothing radical in choosing to tear up a piece of paper costing me a substantial fraction of my income and providing largely symbolic benefits.

Can I have more hilarious satire, sir?

[MRT144]

1) law job? Wtf? She's a medical physicist.
2) I earn a substantial majority of our pay, and with the high marginal rate we face, the impact of her quitting on our lifestyle would limited. Also, I see nothing radical in choosing to tear up a piece of paper costing me a substantial fraction of my income and providing largely symbolic benefits.

1)I thought she was a lawyer for some reason.

2)I'm having a hard time understanding why you would entertain the idea of a divorce for financial reasons unless your marriage isn't providing any emotional, sexual or social benefits. I don't presume to know how your relationship is with your wife but it would take two exceptional people to get divorced for the financial maximization of their relationship, and remain in a relationship.