AMT Difference

But as I recall that website does say if any of a list of things apply, file form 6251 and see where it takes you?

If you did the form 6251 correctly, it should generate correct answers.

For example, when you entered the mortgage interest item, did you tell the software this was acquisition debt or home equity debt, as applies to your specific situation? Nothing on the

1098 form you received which reported the interest tells you that, so you have to know what to tell your software.

Look at every line of the 6251 and see if you agree with their figures. If not, perhaps something was entered wrong.

Remember, tax software is a valuable tool that can speedup tax preparation if used correctly, in the same way that a blowtorch and a chainsaw are valuable tools.

Yes, once I correctly designated about 80% of the mortgage interest as acquisition debt and the balance as equity debt, the AMT disappeared.

Thanks for your help.

The AMT never really "disappears" but it can drop below the regular tax.

Your example is a little counter-intuitive, as equity debt is *not* deductible for AMT purposes (the terminology isn't exactly right, but that's the basic idea). So by designating some mortgage interest as non-acquisition, it should have made your AMT itemized deduction smaller, and your AMT even larger.

You may however have entered the original amounts in such a way that your regular tax was being under-calculated.

-Mark Bole

The way AMT is used on the forms themselves, AMT is tentative minimum tax less regular income tax (adjusted by some form 4972 tax, schedule J and foreign tax credits). It the additiional amount that flows to 1040 line 45.

I read this as saying that initially all of the mortgage interest was incorrectly characterized as HEL, and after making only 20% HEL, that Line 45 AMT figure dropped to zero.