Georgia’s January 5, 2021 Senate runoff elections will determine which party takes control of the Senate for the 117th Congress. If Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win those seats, they will be the deciding votes for enacting the Biden-Harris agenda of higher taxes and bigger government.
The Biden-Harris agenda includes repealing the Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, which would result in millions of Americans paying an alternative minimum tax (AMT). The TCJA enacted a high alternative minimum tax (AMT) exemption and raised the income level at which the exemption begins to phase out.
The AMT was initially passed to ensure 155 high-income Americans paid some federal income tax. However, many Americans today are forced to calculate their taxes twice if their income is higher than the AMT threshold. They then pay the higher amount of either the AMT or the normal tax burden. This is expensive and time consuming.
According to IRS data, prior to the TCJA, in 2017, 5,106,080 households paid an alternative minimum tax. After its implementation, 263,720 households paid an alternative minimum tax in 2018.
In Georgia, over 120,000 households benefited from the AMT reduction under the TCJA:
- In 2017, the alternative minimum tax hit 127,790 households in Georgia.
- In 2018, the alternative minimum tax hit 7,080 households in Georgia.
Incumbent Republican Senators Loeffler and Perdue oppose taxes of any kind. Sen. Perdue voted for the TCJA, which reduced taxes for American families and businesses. Sen. Loeffler was not in Congress at that time, but she supports tax cuts and is a Taxpayer Protection Pledge signer, a written commitment to her constituents to oppose any and all income tax increases.
Senator Loeffler and Senator Perdue will fight to keep taxes low. A vote for Ossoff and Warnock is a vote for the Biden-Harris tax-hike agenda, which will result in 120,000 families in Georgia being forced to pay the alternative minimum tax once again.