Income is income, Adjustment is where the lie comes from.<p>Sure, you can pretend it&#x27;s meaningful number, but ex: charitable donations are not deductible from payroll taxes so they are clearly not going to reduce income.  Or for a more obvious example, donate 1 million in appreciated and you get to deduct the full 1 million from income. (see if you can spot the problem with that.)<p>PS: Hypothetically, if they said AGI was income - 95% of income over 10 million per year would you still use it?  After all that&#x27;s just an adjustment.