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TaxACT. There’s a checkbox you can check to switch back and forth between them.</p>
<p>If it doesn’t get patched, my tax bill goes up over $8K. :(</p>
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Yes, when you get over a certain amount of income, the exemption starts to phase out at a rate of 25 cents per dollar of income. If you are in the 28% AMT bracket, it in effect boosts the rate by 25%, giving a marginal rate of 35%.</p>
<p>Nope, I’m not a nervous wreck. Yet. It’s only money.</p>
<p>I’d just hoped that with kid #1 graduating this year, that we could actually do something fun or pay down debt with that lack of tuition payment. Now I think it’s going to more taxes. Definitely not fun.</p>
<p>I just feel disgruntled and disgusted, plus a couple other dis words.</p>
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Yes, this is true.</p>
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Sure, if the amount owed is high enough.</p>
<p>The real risk with ISO’s is if the value goes down after you exercise them and before can sell them. The difference between the exercise price and market price is taxable for AMT, if you hold the stock. If the price drops you can wind up in a situation where what you get get you sell the stock won’t cover the AMT taxes owed.</p>
<p>I know people this has happened to, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. They had to exercise their ISOs because of a takeover, but they were locked out from selling for a year. During that year the stock price dropped about 70%. Ouch.</p>
<p>The best ISO strategy I’ve heard is to exercise them on Jan 1. Then on December 31 you can decide to sell them and just pay regular taxes (AMT doesn’t apply at that point) or hold on for one more day but be able to get LTCG.</p>
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I’m not scared, but it will cost me a crapload of money.</p>
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<p>No need to be scared. Just don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.</p>
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<p>Why? How far do you think we can keep kicking the can?</p>
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<p>Yogi Berra.</p>
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<p>People make a lot of money doing a lot of things.</p>
<p>notrichenough, Thanks for your detailed explanations.</p>
<p>Most persons I know of (none of them have ISOs that are worth a lot) just tried to exercise and sell at the same time in order to minimize the risk. Nobody would try to get the benefit of LTCG by holding the exercised stock for long. Some simple strategy for them is to put more money into 401K before the end of the year, if they have not maximized their 401K yet.</p>
<p>The return of the 6.2% FICA rate would cost us over $4000. </p>
<p>The return of the marriage penalty (no one talks about this) would probably cost us $4000+. Higher rates - probably $5000.</p>
<p>Does the phaseout of sched A deductions return? That could be another $1000 easily.</p>
<p>All these (except FICA) may be trumped by unpatched AMT.</p>
<p>It’s a bit painful to contemplate.</p>
<p>A useful and simple temporary strategy to control the pain of contemplation and the irritation is just to start drinking heavily. I have found a delicious Chateau St Michelle Indian Wells cab does the trick.</p>
<p>^ Dark and Stormy for me. 
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<p>Notrichenough, you make things sound so bad.</p>
<p>Under amt the highest tax rate you can have is a little over 28 percent. Do you have income that is tax deferred or tax free? Healthcare maybe? Do you have capital gains? A mortgage? 401ks, IRAs?</p>
<p>This knocks your average tax rate down.</p>
<p>Did you get a job?</p>
<p>It’s not going to bankrupt me, but possibly having to pay an extra $15K in taxes next year does not fill me with happiness. That’s a good chunk of a year at either of my kids’ colleges. I’d much rather be stimulating the local economy with it than giving it to the gov’t.</p>
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Not yet! It’s ok though, being unemployed is the best tax-saving strategy of all! ;)</p>
<p>And I get to sleep late! 
:)</p>
<p>I think the economy is going to be looking pretty good in 5 years. </p>
<p>Corporate debt is solid.
Household debt is declining.
I am not worried about govt debt.
Housing is coming back.</p>
<p>As housing comes back, bank balance sheets improve.
Construction will come back.
It would be great if banks were lending now so the public could actually buy homes at reasonable prices, but the Blackstone’s of the world have to buy first.</p>
<p>That’s my answer to this…
“Why? How far do you think we can keep kicking the can?”</p>
<p>There is not going to be a can to kick because in several years, there will
be no can.
One of the things that pi… me off about the cuts to entitlements is entitlements did not cause our economic mess. Entitlement obligations look worse because of the weak economy. There are people with an
agenda to cut entitlements. These people never wanted entitlements to exist. They are taking advantage of the economic situation to push for entitlement cuts. If the economy was strong, they would still want entitlement cuts.</p>
<p>(We don’t need a federal balanced budget either. That is more nonsense).</p>
<p>It’s been 5 years since the financial crisis started. The economy will
recover. It would recover faster if we didn’t have the income and wealth inequality we have in this country. That is economics. </p>
<p>Anyway, I would say the doom and gloomers are going to need to find new careers, but there are always people that soak the bs up.</p>
<p>“And I get to sleep late!” lol…yeah.</p>
<p>Nobody wants to pay an additional $15,000 in taxes.</p>
<p>I never looked at my gross pay as my income. Never in over 30 years. I always looked at my net after taxes as my income. You should try that someday. Eliminates a lot of unnecessary angriness. ;)</p>
<p>My wife is still happy. It has been two months. ;)</p>
<p>Forget the fiscal cliff: [Forget</a> the ‘Fiscal Cliff,’ Look at These Cliffs - CNBC](<a href=“http://www.cnbc.com/id/50029149]Forget”>http://www.cnbc.com/id/50029149)</p>
<p>My page is blank, doct. Video?</p>
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<p>Then you should be 200% long in the $spx.</p>
<p>Did you ever watch that video on crack street?</p>
<p>Don’t remember the video.</p>
<p>I probably should be 200 percent long. Twenty percent would be fine.</p>
<p>I am not sure about 2013.</p>
<p>Just go on cnbc.com and it is a slide show</p>
<p>Here’s the video.</p>
<p>[Watch</a> High On Crack Street: Lost Lives In Lowell Feature Film Online Free - Crackle](<a href=“http://www.crackle.com/c/High_On_Crack_Street_Lost_Lives_In_Lowell/High_On_Crack_Street_Lost_Lives_In_Lowell/2485746?c=US]Watch”>http://www.crackle.com/c/High_On_Crack_Street_Lost_Lives_In_Lowell/High_On_Crack_Street_Lost_Lives_In_Lowell/2485746?c=US)</p>
<p>We have a ton of problems in the US and some of them are chronic and getting worse. We even discuss them in these forums from time to time - a place dedicated to educational issues. The question is: have we passed the point of no return? We’re clearly in a vicious cycle and I know what a virtuous cycle looks like and you can even find some examples in other countries.</p>