With income tax filing day now past, how much money do you have left? As each year passes it’s likely to be less, thanks to a law enacted back in 1969 to collect taxes from 155 rich tax dodgers called Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Exactly how it happened that by 2005 about 3.6 million taxpayers got caught in this web is a tribute to Uncle Sam’s ingenuity. But the real question is whether that number will soar, as predicted, to 31 million by 2010.

If announced intentions mean anything, the beleaguered taxpayer might expect relief, as politicians of all stripes call for doing away with the unfair assessment. On record are numerous legislators, among them Senator John Sununu (R-NH), who in May 2005 announced his co-sponsorship of a bipartisan effort for repeal. And last November the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform flatly recommended that AMT be eliminated in 2006. Even as recently as April 7, 2006, two New Jersey Democrats, Senator Bob Menendez and Congressman Rob Andrews endorsed its rollback or elimination. With all this political horsepower, is it reasonable to anticipate that AMT will soon be a thing of the past?

I have a prediction. Treatment of AMT will parallel that of another levy: FICA, the social security payroll tax that the President attempted last year to reduce through partial privatization. That effort died an ignominious death, as will any attempt to eliminate this taxpayer burden—and for the same reason. The simple fact is that these tax devices deliver tremendous sums into the U.S. treasury. Regardless of political posturing, government officials at all levels want your money.

A concluding thought:
Regardless of political philosophy or party affiliation, everyone who enters government service sooner or later comes to share the attitude that the citizens’ pockets are there to be picked. In short: Uncle Sam wants yours!