Harry and Mary Prodigious are married filing jointly and have 12 dependent children. Six of the children are under age 17. With the large number of children, they live in a very austere manner. Harry, in his spare time, works a large garden that provides most of their food. Mary makes all the children’s clothes. Harry works for a local engineering firm and earns a salary of $100,000 annually. Mary does not work outside the home. The only other income is taxable interest in the amount of $8,000. For 2016, they claim the standard deduction and have no tax preferences or adjustments for purposes of the AMT.
a. Compute Harry and Mary’s regular tax and AMT under the facts above.
b. Comment on the tax policy implications of your answer in Part a above.