The alternative minimum tax will wipe out the advantages of the $500-per-child tax credit for more than one million American families, according to Congressional analysts.

Put in place more than a decade ago, the alternative minimum tax attempts to assure that the very wealthy don't avoid paying taxes. But it has never been adjusted for inflation -- so that more and more taxpayers are brought under it as incomes rise. Experts say it will dilute or completely wipe out the child credit for a range of families in the 15 percent tax bracket.

• For example, a two-income family with four children in daycare and taxable earnings of $42,400 in 1998 would have all but $18 of the credit wiped out by the minimum tax.

• A single parent with two children in daycare and taxable earnings of $34,000 in 1998 would see more than one-half of the child credit erased.

• The same parent would lose two-thirds of the credit a year later.

Source: Greg Hitt, "Minimum Tax May Erode $500 Child Credit," Wall Street Journal, July 16, 1997.

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