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Discussion3
Petitioners contend that they are not liable for the AMT
because they do not have any AMT adjustments or tax preferences.
Petitioners rely on Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax, and
on the 2002 Form 1040 Instructions to support their contention
that they do not have any adjustments or preferences that would
trigger the AMT. We disagree.
First, we observe that the authoritative sources of Federal
tax law are the statutes, regulations, and judicial decisions and
not informal publications distributed by the Internal Revenue
Service such as Publication 17 or the 2002 Form 1040
Instructions. Zimmerman v. Commissioner, 71 T.C. 367, 371
(1978), affd. 614 F.2d 1294 (2d Cir. 1979). Nevertheless, we
note that Publication 17 correctly states:
You may have to pay the alternative minimum tax if your
taxable income for regular tax purposes, combined with
certain adjustments and tax preference items, is more
than * * * $49,000 if your filing status is married
filing joint * * *
Publication 17 then goes on to list the more common adjustments,
specifically including most miscellaneous itemized deductions.
We note further that the 2002 Form 1040 Instructions for line 43,
Alternative Minimum Tax, instruct a taxpayer to use a specific
worksheet to determine whether the taxpayer should complete Form
3 We decide the issue in this case without regard to the
burden of proof under sec. 7491(a) because the issue is
essentially one of law.
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