Taxes;

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Here's something you need like a bad heart: a new federal tax on corporations. If you're not paying it, moreover, you'd better call your accountant. You could be penalized for failing to include it in your quarterly payments to the Internal Revenue Service.

The tax, which comes out of the Superfund Revenue Act, will go toward financing the national effort to clean up toxic wastes. That's a worthy cause, and the amount each company pays is not onerous, at least compared with normal tax liability, notes Gillian M. Spooner, a tax partner with Touche Ross & Co., in Washington, D.C.

The problem is that you need an advanced degree in accounting to calculate it. That's because the tax is based on your alternative minimum taxable income (AMTI), whether you pay alternative minimum or regular corporate income tax. As a result, companies that never paid attention to AMTI will now have to make the complicated calculation. Then, to figure your Superfund tax liability, you subtract $2 million from your AMTI and multiply the difference by 0.12%. Put another way, you owe $1.20 of tax per $1,000 of AMTI above $2 million. Just what you needed.