Democratic politicians in the US are proposing a “surtax” on wealthy households in the US, and according to one report in the Washington Post, one version of the plans is for a 4.3 per cent tax on income of over $500,000. The proposed tax would hit around a million US families, although, according to the report, the proposals would lower taxes for about 90 million other taxpayers as the alternative minimum tax would be abolished for taxpayers earning less than $250,000 per year. Households with income of between $250,000 and $500,000 would have a reduction in tax under the proposals. The AMT is a mechanism to ensure that high income taxpayers are not able to completely eliminate their tax liability through deductions and exemptions. The AMT legislation was introduced in the 1960s and has not been indexed to inflation, thus bringing increasing numbers of taxpayers into the system. In 2006, 4 million families were within the AMT system, a figure that is thought to have risen 23 million in 2007.