Word: superrich
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...much higher tax bracket next year, however, you should do the opposite. Ditto if you'll get hit with the alternative minimum tax in 1999. Before making any move, in fact, you should consult a tax pro to figure out if the amt applies. Once only the superrich were vulnerable, but now many upper-middle-class taxpayers get hit. Warning signs include a very large mortgage, stock options that you've exercised or large business-related deductions...
Alternative minimum tax. Designed to afflict only the superrich, this monster increasingly soaks the middle class. More than 1 million taxpayers will owe it this year, and 9 million by 2008--including many earning considerably less than $100,000 a year. Little more than a decade ago, fewer than 100,000 people were subject to the AMT. It's a complicated tax that targets folks who avoid most traditional income taxes through large credits and deductions. High earners in high-tax states are most vulnerable, but anyone taking a large deduction for business expenses can fall victim. Tip: consult...
Alas, not everyone has ambitions so grandiose. In Silicon Valley, 25% of the area's wealthiest people give away less than $2,000 a year. And the spike in giving among the most affluent Americans is at least a little deceiving. The 8% of after-tax income that the superrich give away is still puny compared with their total wealth...
What remained constant in Wolfe's mind throughout this creative marathon was a tour two Atlanta friends had given him back in 1989 of the plantations of southwest Georgia, immense tracts of property, dotted with sumptuous homes and extensive outbuildings, maintained at staggering expense by the superrich for the principal reason of shooting quail in season between Thanksgiving and the end of February. "I look for milieu first," Wolfe says, "the setting of a story before the story itself, and I was astonished at those plantations, their psychological location in the past and the tremendous amount of conspicuous consumption required...
...spending bill it passed last week, but it did a few small favors. Next year, for example, a million families that earn around $45,000 to $90,000 can take advantage of child and college-tuition credits without triggering the alternative minimum tax, the IRS's weapon against the superrich that has lately been striking more of the upper-middle class...