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Just curious, those of you who stayed in biglaw or midlaw, and have now purchased a home and get all the deductions, are you able to reduce tax liability enough to get to the AMT?

Obviously it's gonna be different for a 2nd yr in seattle than a 6rh year in NY, but just curious if this is common or not

how in the fuck would a second year biglawyer get to the AMT?

JohannDeMann wrote:how in the fuck would a second year biglawyer get to the AMT?

If he/she is married to another second year biglawyer?

anonnymouse wrote:

JohannDeMann wrote:how in the fuck would a second year biglawyer get to the AMT?

If he/she is married to another second year biglawyer?

what kind of deductions are they getting? just from a home mortgage? 4-5 kids? ive never done the math but i think its pretty doubtful anyone earning income wages is gonna hit the AMT. its more for cap gains big earners/incentive stock options.

this thread is for rich people problems, not to be confused, and very little overlap, with lawyer problems.

ballouttacontrol wrote:Just curious, those of you who stayed in biglaw or midlaw, and have now purchased a home and get all the deductions, are you able to reduce tax liability enough to get to the AMT?

Obviously it's gonna be different for a 2nd yr in seattle than a 6rh year in NY, but just curious if this is common or not

This is a strange and poorly phrased question. You aren't going to need to do this as a 2nd year in Seattle, but if and when you get there you can consult a tax professional.

We got hit with AMT. Almost 500k household income + 4 dependents + home owners. I was actually surprised too. I didn't think AMT could ever apply to relatively "normal" people either. And then I talked to another colleague whose spouse also is high income and has 5 kids, and they had to pay AMT too.

Edit for realizing what a bubble I live in to think 500k household income is "relatively normal."

JohannDeMann wrote:how in the fuck would a second year biglawyer get to the AMT?

Idk man, family of 4, maybe $200k or so income, some home deductions, high tax state and locality, healthy investment portfolio. Random other shit, idk, medical bills and stuff.

Doesn't seem that farfetched.

Not sure though, hence the question

Something like 5% of Americans pay AMT

patentlitigatrix wrote:We got hit with AMT. Almost 500k household income + 4 dependents + home owners. I was actually surprised too. I didn't think AMT could ever apply to relatively "normal" people either. And then I talked to another colleague whose spouse also is high income and has 5 kids, and they had to pay AMT too.

Edit for realizing what a bubble I live in to think 500k household income is "relatively normal."

#HumbleBrag

JohannDeMann wrote:

anonnymouse wrote:

JohannDeMann wrote:how in the fuck would a second year biglawyer get to the AMT?

If he/she is married to another second year biglawyer?

what kind of deductions are they getting? just from a home mortgage? 4-5 kids? ive never done the math but i think its pretty doubtful anyone earning income wages is gonna hit the AMT. its more for cap gains big earners/incentive stock options.

this thread is for rich people problems, not to be confused, and very little overlap, with lawyer problems.

Nope, double biglaw can get there no problem. No kids, no significant capital gains, home owner in a high state tax state, gotten hit for 2 years now.

BaiAilian2013 wrote: Nope, double biglaw can get there no problem. No kids, no significant capital gains, home owner in a high state tax state, gotten hit for 2 years now.

youre doing something wrong.

JohannDeMann wrote:

BaiAilian2013 wrote: Nope, double biglaw can get there no problem. No kids, no significant capital gains, home owner in a high state tax state, gotten hit for 2 years now.

youre doing something wrong.

if you're hitting up against AMT, you really can't possibly be doing very much better at taxes...

JohannDeMann wrote:

BaiAilian2013 wrote: Nope, double biglaw can get there no problem. No kids, no significant capital gains, home owner in a high state tax state, gotten hit for 2 years now.

youre doing something wrong.

The real killer is state taxes. They're not deductible for AMT purposes. Most other major deductions (dependents, mortgage interest, etc) are also AMT deductions so -- other than deducting state taxes -- you would only start getting whacked on the AMT exemption phaseout (notice it's only about a 50% increase for MFJ vs singles -- another marriage penalty).

So the trifecta for 2x biglaw is: exemption that's less than 2x the singles exemption, beginning to phase out exemption due to higher income, and state taxes not deductible.

Johann you live in a low tax state and you know fuckall about AMT, stop spouting shit.

Edit to add: if you owe AMT on W-2 income, there's really no way to avoid it. Just suck it up and be glad you are in the top 1.5% or so of earners.

ballouttacontrol wrote:

JohannDeMann wrote:

BaiAilian2013 wrote: Nope, double biglaw can get there no problem. No kids, no significant capital gains, home owner in a high state tax state, gotten hit for 2 years now.

youre doing something wrong.

if you're hitting up against AMT, you really can't possibly be doing very much better at taxes...

AMT is only for people that have sub 25% ETRs. That's damn near impossible with 500k of regular income (non cap gains) and no children. Maybe dude has a $1.5M house, but something is wrong there.

JohannDeMann wrote:

ballouttacontrol wrote:

JohannDeMann wrote:

BaiAilian2013 wrote: Nope, double biglaw can get there no problem. No kids, no significant capital gains, home owner in a high state tax state, gotten hit for 2 years now.

youre doing something wrong.

if you're hitting up against AMT, you really can't possibly be doing very much better at taxes...

AMT is only for people that have sub 25% ETRs. That's damn near impossible with 500k of regular income (non cap gains) and no children. Maybe dude has a $1.5M house, but something is wrong there.

Wrong. 2x NYC biglaw will almost certainly pay AMT if doing MFJ. Even if just renting.

anonnymouse wrote: Wrong.

I'm just telling the dude to look over his shit again. Stop being a clown never adding value.

JohannDeMann wrote:

anonnymouse wrote: Wrong.

I'm just telling the dude to look over his shit again. Stop being a clown never adding value.

Already explained why you're wrong. I may not be adding value but, unlike you, I am not contributing negative value. As I said, you know fuckall about AMT, stop spouting shit.

anonnymouse wrote:

JohannDeMann wrote:

anonnymouse wrote: Wrong.

I'm just telling the dude to look over his shit again. Stop being a clown never adding value.

Already explained why you're wrong. I may not be adding value but, unlike you, I am not contributing negative value. As I said, you know fuckall about AMT, stop spouting shit.

Based on the 8 words you've posted other than "wrong" it sounds like you know less than me about AMT, which isn't my expertise, as I already said, but I know how rare it is. If you dont have kids and dont own property, there's about a .1% chance you owe AMT. Perhaps you should do some homework on it.

JohannDeMann wrote:

anonnymouse wrote:

JohannDeMann wrote:

anonnymouse wrote: Wrong.

I'm just telling the dude to look over his shit again. Stop being a clown never adding value.

Already explained why you're wrong. I may not be adding value but, unlike you, I am not contributing negative value. As I said, you know fuckall about AMT, stop spouting shit.

Based on the 8 words you've posted other than "wrong" it sounds like you know less than me about AMT, which isn't my expertise, as I already said, but I know how rare it is. If you dont have kids and dont own property, there's about a .1% chance you owe AMT. Perhaps you should do some homework on it.

You must have missed this one, lil breh. I rent in NYC with my gf. Our annual pretax is ~450k. If we got married, we'd owe $4k+ in AMT. As I said, it's because of state and local taxes.

It takes all of 2 mins with TaxCaster to figure that out. I've done the homework -- I did it two years ago. You clearly don't know much about AMT yet continually shitpoast "ur doin it wrong, huehuehue" so PSA to future readers/poasters ITT: johanndumbass gonna johandumbass.

Johann, you should probably adopt some "not a tax professional" disclaimer as a signature