The Joint Committee on Taxation released a report on the AMT yesterday describing how the AMT works, a brief legislative history, and why it's affecting more and more middle-class tax payers every year. It's really a good primer on the tax. In a previous post, Dana notes Table 2 in the report as a stark reminder of how deep the AMT would reach into the middle class without yearly legislative fixes. I, however, would like to draw your attention to figures 3 and 4. These charts do a nice job of illustrating the extent to which EGTRRA (the 2001-2003 Bush tax cuts, which are set to expire in 2010) exacerbates the AMT problem. Figure 3 compares the number AMT taxpayers under current law and under extension of EGTRRA (removal of the expiration date of the Bush tax cuts) (click to enlarge) Figure 4 compares projected AMT liability under current law and extension of EGTRRA > (click to enlarge) The rest of the report is chock-full of informative charts and tables of the AMT. Thumb through it if popular media coverage of AMT is not detailed enough for you.