Middle class tax relief is tax relief targeted mainly at the middle-income families. For helping middle class families and to create job opportunities for this segment of the population, the U.S. Congress has approved and put in place major tax-relief programs. This is supposed to help millions of middle-income families, particularly families with children. The hope is that such a tax relief would enable them to keep their farms and businesses within the family instead of being forced to use them to pay heavy government taxes. In one way, this is the government?s act of rewarding families that have managed to save and build businesses.
The broad-based capital gains tax relief proposed by Congress is expected to not only encourage savings and economic growth but also provide tax relief to the middle class. This is because nearly two-thirds of tax returns reporting capital gains tax are filed by people with annual incomes less than $50,000. These families own assets like stocks, bonds, real estate, and small businesses that could be positively impacted by a lower capital gains tax.
A controversial tax that affects the middle class is the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The AMT, which was introduced as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1969, was primarily meant to tax high incomes that enjoyed various exemptions under the mainstream tax system. However, lack of indexing to adjust for the effect of inflation has resulted in the AMT becoming a tax penalty for middle class families who live in areas with a high cost of living. Though families with annual incomes less than $75,000 need not worry about the AMT since the median household income in the U.S. as of 2005 is around $44,000, in some areas the $75,000 income figure might cross the AMT threshold. This has wide implications for middle-class families, and demands for middle-class tax relief often involve debates on the AMT.