how to file form 6251 alternative minimum tax individuals
form 1040 u s individual tax return includes a worksheet that allows a taxpayer to determine whether amt is owed but it only provides basic computations 8 form 6251 is more detailed and will give a more accurate answer and simply completing it does not mean that it has to be filed alternatively you can use tax software or enlist a tax pro only if there is amt owed will form 6251 have to be attached to form 1040 9the amt requires affected taxpayers to calculate their tax bill under the ordinary income tax system and again under the amt paying the higher of the two amounts after calculating your amt you can claim an exemption based on your filing status the amt exemption is much higher than the standard exemption but phases out when you reach a certain income level in 2023 the amt exemption for individual filers is 81 300 75 900 in 2022 and for married joint filers 126 500 118 100 in 2022 the exemption begins to phase out when income reaches 578 150 for individual filers and 1 156 300 for married joint filers 4all pages of form 6251 are available on the irs website 10special considerationsa lack of inflation adjustments caused the amt to apply to a much larger group of taxpayers than originally intended congress had passed annual inflation adjustments to limit the reach of the amt before instituting a permanent fix of indexing future exemption levels to inflation as part of the american taxpayer relief act of 2012 11the amt collected 4 7 billion in 2019 about 0 3 of individual income tax revenue but significantly less than the 36 2 billion collected in 2017 this decrease was mainly due to changes to the amt that were part of the tax cuts and jobs act tcja of 2017 starting in 2018 for example tcja triggered a higher amt exemption and the level at which the exemption begins to phase out 12