Corporate Tax Floor Disappears: 'Book Minimum Tax Repeal Act' Eliminates AMT for Corporations Starting 2025

The “Book Minimum Tax Repeal Act” is straightforward: it completely wipes out the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) for corporations. This change kicks in for tax years starting after December 31, 2024. If you’re a busy person trying to keep track of who pays what, this is a big deal because the AMT was essentially a tax floor intended to ensure that large, profitable companies couldn't use loopholes and deductions to pay zero federal taxes. This bill removes that safety net entirely.

The Corporate Tax Safety Net Goes Away

Think of the Corporate AMT like a backup minimum payment on a credit card. Even if a corporation used every legal deduction and credit to bring its regular tax bill down to zero, the AMT was supposed to make sure they still paid something. This bill, specifically in Section 2, strikes out the entire framework that applied this minimum tax to corporations. For companies, this means massive simplification—they no longer have to run two separate tax calculations (the regular tax and the AMT) and pay the higher of the two. It also means they can now fully apply general business credits without worrying about the AMT limiting their use, which is a major win for businesses that invest heavily.

Who Benefits, and Who Pays the Difference?

This is where the real-world impact hits. The immediate winners are large, profitable corporations, especially those with complex accounting methods or those that rely heavily on tax credits. They get simpler taxes and, potentially, much lower tax bills. For instance, a major energy company or a large financial firm that previously had to pay the AMT will now be able to zero out their federal tax liability if their deductions allow it. The bill is pretty clear: Section 38 (c)(6)(E) is updated so that corporations treat their tentative minimum tax as zero, clearing the way for them to maximize their tax breaks.

However, when a major source of revenue is reduced, that cost usually gets shifted elsewhere. The AMT was designed to bring in billions from the most profitable companies. When that revenue disappears, the government has less money for everything from infrastructure to healthcare, or it means the tax burden potentially shifts more heavily onto individuals and small businesses that don't have the same access to complex deductions. For the average working family, this means less corporate contribution to the overall federal budget, raising questions about how those gaps will be filled down the line.

What About Everyone Else?

It’s important to note that the bill does not repeal the AMT for individual, non-corporate taxpayers. If you’re a high-income individual, you still have to deal with the AMT, although the bill does adjust the rate structure for non-corporate taxpayers. If your income exceeds the exemption amount by up to $175,000, the rate is 26%; anything over that is taxed at 28%. So, for the rest of us, the minimum tax structure remains, but for the biggest corporations, that floor is gone entirely. This contrast highlights a significant policy choice: prioritizing corporate tax simplification and reduction over maintaining a minimum tax requirement for the largest entities in the economy.