AMT Calculator
Quick check on Alternative Minimum Tax exposure for 2026. Most useful for ISO exercises and high earners with large SALT deductions, capital gains, or other preference items.
SALT is added back for AMT purposes.
FMV at exercise minus strike price, on ISOs you exercised and held past December 31.
Private activity bond interest, accelerated depreciation, etc.
Estimated AMT Owed
$0
No AMT owed at these inputs. Your regular tax meets or exceeds tentative minimum tax.
- AMTI (estimate)
- $440,000
- Adjusted Exemption
- $88,100
- AMT Base
- $351,900
- Tentative AMT
- $93,750
- Regular Tax (est.)
- $109,547
- Amount Over Regular
- $0
ISO Exercise Headroom
You could exercise and hold ISOs with up to about $56,419 of bargain element this year before triggering any AMT, given your other inputs.
Estimate only. Other AMT preferences and adjustments not modeled here may shift this number.
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When AMT Hits Hardest
AMT is a parallel tax system designed to ensure high-income taxpayers with significant deductions and preference items still pay a minimum level of federal tax. It runs alongside the regular tax calculation, and you owe whichever is higher.
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act dramatically reduced AMT exposure for most taxpayers by raising the exemption and phaseout. Today, AMT typically affects two groups: employees who exercise Incentive Stock Options (ISOs) and hold the shares (the bargain element is an AMT adjustment), and high earners in high-tax states with large SALT deductions plus other preference items.
If you are exercising ISOs, multi-year planning matters. You can often spread exercises across years to keep cumulative AMT impact below thresholds, or do a same-day exercise-and-sell to avoid AMT entirely (at the cost of ordinary income vs long-term capital gain treatment).