-Woolsey joins majority in voting to protect middle class families from AMT-

Washington, DC – In a move that will benefit tens of thousands of families in Marin and Sonoma Counties, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) today voted for a one year fix for the Alternative Minimum Tax, which unfairly targets millions of middle-class Americans each year.

“As we enter the holiday season and close in on the end of the year the last thing that middle class families should be worrying about is getting hit with the AMT,” Woolsey said.  “In my district alone this legislation will benefit over 59,000 working families who without it would be facing an additional tax that was never meant to target them in the first place."

Originally designed to guarantee that millionaires could not avoid paying income tax, the AMT wasn’t written to adjust for annual inflation, an oversight which has caused millions of middle-class families to be threatened by the tax every year.  This year alone, 23 working Americans face the AMT nationwide.  In Marin and Sonoma Counties that translates to 78,239 projected AMT returns for 2007, a 300% increase from the roughly 18,000 annual AMT returns that have been filed in recent years.

“I don’t think anyone disagrees with the fact that the AMT needs to be fixed, it’s just a question of finding the will to make it happen” Woolsey said.  “Year after year, we play this game of ‘chicken’ with the end of the year, leaving millions of hard working American families fearful that they will be captured in a tax that was never meant to touch them.  This proposal is a good start, but I hope that this will be a first step to a responsible solution to permanently fix this misguided tax policy.”

In addition to providing a temporary fix for the AMT the legislation also extends the child tax credit, benefiting 12 million children.  The legislation extends the number of working families that can be covered by the tax credit by reducing the minimum income requirement for eligibility to $8,500 from $11,000.