The proposed AMT rules undercut the revised s. 84.1 rules

The revised alternative minimum tax (AMT) rules, including the increasing the percentage of capital gains included in adjusted taxable income (ATI) from 80% to 100% and the AMT rate from 15% to 20.5%, may work at cross purposes with the proposed regime for intergenerational business transfers (IBTs) that are excluded from the application of s. 84.1.

Because of the IBT requirement that the parent transfer management of each relevant business to a child within either 36 or 60 months of the disposition time, or within such greater period of time as is reasonable in the circumstances, there may be reduced scope for the payment of increased salaries or bonuses during the AMT carryforward to recover AMT generated on the disposition.

If the IBT sale occurs for deferred purchase price (debt), the 10-year reserve proposed by s. 40(1.2) may allow the parent to avoid AMT entirely if the gain is small enough – but for larger sales, utilizing the 10-year reserve may trigger AMT in multiple years, reducing the parent’s ability to recover AMT.

If the parent makes charitable donations out of the sales process, the halving of the charitable credit under the revised AMT rules may very well compound the AMT difficulties both immediately and as a result of the competition between the need in the AMT carryforward period to recover the AMT from the sale and from the donation, particularly if the IBT planning relies on the 10-year reserve.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of Balaji (Bal) Katlai, Hugh Neilson and H. Michael Dolson, “AMT and Intergenerational Business Transfers: Planning Challenges,” Tax for the Owner-Manager, Vol. 23, No. 4, October 2023, p. 3 under s. 127.52(1).