| Leslie,
This is the Million dollar question every taxpayer has been asking Congress. The AMT tax is there for a reason to collect more taxes from high income earners with substantial tax deductions.
Thus, the write-off's that you are talking about is what is CAUSING THE AMT tax to come into play!!! The idea is to avoid taking the so called write-offs or tax preference items!
But, if you avoid taking these write-offs, then your tax rate effectively climbs and you pay more tax. And, taking these deductions, have no impact on your tax liability! What do you do in this situation? This is a a question all CPA's are faced during this tax season. In short, VERY LITTLE, regretably.
Please refer to AMT articles and discussion treads in the coming weeks as I will offer more input into this subject. | 
