Understanding the AMT, and its Unadopted Sibling, the AMxT

U.S. taxpayers are currently required to pay the greater of their liabilities under the regular income tax and their liabilities under the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Despite its unpopularity, the AMT serves the function of permitting Congress to offer tax preferences for certain activities and expenditures while maintaining a progressive tax system. This paper examines this role of the AMT, and explores the possibility of adding an Alternative Maximum Tax (AMxT) that would augment the impact of the AMT. An AMxT limits a taxpayer’s liability to the minimum of the amount due under the regular income tax and the amount due under an alternative regime with the same tax base as the AMT, but higher tax rates. Adopting a coherent AMT/AMxT combination would increase the complexity of the tax system but make it possible to increase the progressivity of the regular income tax while using tax preferences to encourage socially beneficial activities, all without inducing excessive inequities in resulting tax burdens. Although the U.S. Treasury proposed an AMxT when it first advanced its plan for an AMT in 1969, and despite AMxT features of the current U.S. income tax, a comprehensive AMxT has never been enacted

tert-Butyl 2-methyl-2-(4-methyl­benzo­yl)propanoate

The title compound, C16H22O3, is bent with a dihedral angle of 75.3 (1)° between the mean planes of the benzene ring and a group encompassing the ester functionality (O=C—O—C). In the crystal, the mol­ecules are linked into infinite chains held together by weak C—H⋯O hydrogen-bonded inter­actions between an H atom on the benzene ring of one mol­ecule and an O atom on the ketone functionality of an adjacent mol­ecule. The chains are arranged with neighbouring tert-butyl and dimethyl groups on adjacent chains exhibiting hydro­phobic stacking, with short C—H⋯H—C contacts (2.37 Å) between adjacent chain

Understanding the AMT, and its Unadopted Sibling, the AMxT

Four million Americans with extensive tax preferences are subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). By taxing a broad definition of income, the AMT makes it possible to have a tax system that both encourages certain activities with generous tax preferences and maintains a semblance of distributional equity. The same rationale supports the imposition of an Alternative Maximum Tax (AMxT), which would cap tax liabilities of individuals with very few preference items and thereby afford Congress greater flexibility in designing the income tax. The original 1969 AMT proposal included an AMxT; it is difficult to justify imposing one without the other

tert-Butyl 2-methyl-2-(4-nitro­benzo­yl)propanoate

The title compound, C15H19NO5, is bent with a dihedral angle of 61.8 (2)° between the mean planes of the benzene ring and a group encompassing the ester functionality (O=C—O—C). The dihedral angle of 0.8 (2)° between the mean planes of the nitro group and the benzene ring indicates near coplanarity. In the crystal, each mol­ecule is linked to four adjacent mol­ecules by weak C—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter­actions. Both benzene H atoms ortho to the ketone O atom form C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds with the keto O atoms of two neighboring mol­ecules (of the keto and ester groups, respectively), and the two other inter­actions involve the H atoms from a methyl group of the dimethyl residue, displaying C—H⋯O inter­actions with the O atoms of the nitro groups. These four inter­actions for each mol­ecule lead to the formation of two-dimensional sheets with a hydro­philic inter­ior, held together by weak hydrogen-bonded inter­actions, and a hydro­phobic exterior composed of protruding methyl groups which interst­ack with the methyl groups in adjacent sheets

Delegating Tax

Congress delegates extensive and growing lawmaking authority to federal administrative agencies in areas other than taxation, but tightly limits the scope of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Treasury regulatory discretion in the tax area, specifically not permitting these agencies to select or adjust tax rates. This Article questions why tax policy does and should differ from other policy areas in this respect, noting some of the potential policy benefits of delegation. Greater delegation of tax lawmaking authority would allow administrative agencies to apply their expertise to fiscal policy and afford timely adjustment to changing economic circumstances. Furthermore, delegation of the tax reform process to an independent commission or agency offers the prospect of Congress committing itself to rational reform and long-run budget sustainability in a way that is more apt to succeed than piecemeal legislative efforts. The Article concludes with an analysis of the constitutionality of tax delegation, noting the applicability of recent Supreme Court decisions confirming Congress’s broad discretion to delegate rulemaking authority to federal agencies, and arguing that tax policy is of a kind with other federal policies

Does woman + a network = career progression?

Question: I am an ambitious and talented junior manager who has recently been hired by FAB plc, a large multinational company. I am also a woman and, as part of my induction pack, have received an invitation to join FABFemmes - the in-company women's network. I don't think my gender has been an obstacle to my success thus far and so I don't really feel the need to join. But on the other hand I don't want to turn my back on something that might offer me a useful source of contacts to help me advance up the career ladder. What would be the best thing to do? - Ms Ambitious, UK

Service as a Component of Graduate Training in Professional Psychology

This article examines the outcomes of a Community Service Weekend in Residence (CS-WIR) program for students engaged in graduate training in professional psychology. The data were collected from eight clinical psychology students’ feedback about their experiences during the CS-WIR as well as self-reports of perceived satisfaction and impact on various areas of professional development. Results suggested that students were satisfied with their experience in the CS-WIR and perceived that the weekend contributed to their professional development, even though the tasks of the community service project differed from tasks typical to training in professional psychology. Further, students voluntarily identified the community service project as one of the most beneficial aspects of the entire experience in terms of their professional development and noted that the likelihood to engage in future service had been significantly impacted as a result of their participation

tert-Butyl 2-benzoyl-2-methyl­propanoate

The title compound, C15H20O3, is bent with a dihedral angle of 67.28 (9)° between the mean planes of the phenyl ring and a group encompassing the ester functionality (O=C—O—C). In the crystal, mol­ecules related by inversion symmetry are connected by weak C—H⋯O inter­actions into infinite chains. On one side of the mol­ecule there are two adjacent inter­actions between neighbouring mol­ecules involving the H atoms of methyl groups from the dimethyl groups and the O atoms of the ketone; on the other side, there are also two inter­actions to another adjacent mol­ecule involving the H atoms on the phenyl rings and the carbonyl O atoms of the ester functionality

The Effects of Day Care Participation on Parent-Infant Interaction at Home

This study assessed how parents who placed their children in a high-quality infant and toddler program were, over time, influenced by three salient features of the center: its child-centered focus, its social orientation, and its support for men in nurturing roles