First things first.

• Author: Ricketts, Robert
• Position: Letter to the editor

Charles Peters is right ("Tilting at Windmills," January/February). The FICA tax is a more significant burden for most American families than the alternative minimum tax, or AMT. However, it is still important to recognize what has gone wrong with the AMT. As Peters said, the AMT was designed to ensure that wealthy Americans would not be able to abuse "loopholes" to avoid paying their fair share of income taxes. It was the news that many wealthy Americans paid no income tax at all that spurred creation of the AMT. One of the most significant of these "loopholes" has historically been the preferential treatment accorded to capital gains. Today, neither capital gains nor dividends are subject to the AMT. Instead, the "loopholes" that push most people into the AMT are state income taxes, medical expenses, and dependency exemptions claimed for children. It is difficult to envision these deductions as tax abuse. Moreover, because some states do not impose state or local income taxes, the AMT's burden falls more heavily on...