Friends of the Earth, a leading environmental group, identified this tax benefit as one of the 15 most environmentally harmful tax breaks even before the proposed expansion. Enacted as part of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, the AMT ensures that profitable corporations pay their fair share. In the early 1980s, many profitable corporations paid no taxes at all. Originally, Chairman Bill Archer of the Ways and Means Committee had proposed eliminating this tax outright. Instead, the House bill would gut provisions of the AMT that prevent companies from receiving such large tax breaks on their capital equipment that they can owe no taxes.
Many farmers operate on a cash accounting basis.
This means that, unlike many businesses, they can deduct their full capital costs each year. The House bill would reduce the top rate on capital gains from 28 percent to 20 percent. As a result, a wealthy farmer could deduct the cost of raising animals at the top income tax rate of 39.6 percent and only pay 20 percent on the animals' increase in value when sold. NASA's July 4 th Pathfinder landing on Mars is sensible science, but discussion of sending humans to Mars is sheer lunacy and would cost hundreds of billions of dollars.