Hardly anyone likes the alternative minimum tax, the provision that ended up costing Donald J. Trump an additional $31 million in federal income taxes in 2005 that a banquet of deductions would have otherwise enabled him to avoid paying.
At its most basic, the A.M.T.'s goal is simple: In a tax system with enough loopholes to fill a macramé tapestry, the idea was to ensure that the richest taxpayers were not able to skip out on paying altogether. A version was introduced in 1969 after Congress discovered that — are you ready? — 155 taxpayers with taxable incomes over $200,000 paid no tax.
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