¹The AMT applies to both individuals and corporations; this article focuses only on the application of the tax to individuals.

²For detailed computations, see Everett and O'Neil, "AMT Planning Strategies," 31 The Tax Adviser 788 (November 2000).

³This article ignores capital gains; see note 6, infra.

⁴"AMT-P&A" refers to the net amount of AMT preferences and adjustments added to TI to get AMTI.

⁵Personal exemptions are not added back on Form 6251, Alternative Minimum Tax--Individuals, because the form begins the AMTI computation with TI before personal exemptions.

⁶To avoid additional complexity, the article assumes that taxpayers do not have capital gains subject to special rates. The computations supporting the charts involve AMT rates of 26% on the first $175,000 of AMTI and 28% on higher amounts. There is a predictable relationship between TI and the application of these rates. When capital gains are introduced into the equation, a different set of AMT rates (10%, etc.) are introduced, but their application is not determined solely by TI. Instead, the extent to which the capital gain rates are used in AMT computations depends on the amount of capital gain.