‘Taxmageddon’ is coming!

[classicman]

Really? This is the first time I've heard this term. I had to read the article.
I wasn't aware of all these changes coming pretty much consecutively.

1) On Dec. 31, the George W. Bush-era tax cuts are scheduled to expire, raising rates on investment income,
estates and gifts, and earnings at all levels.

2) Overnight, the marriage penalty for joint filers will spring back to life,

3) The child credit will drop from $1,000 to $500

4) The rate everyone pays on the first $8,700 of wages will jump from 10 percent to 15 percent.[/quote]

5) The Social Security payroll tax will pop back up to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent

6) Medicare taxes as part of Othe HCRA will start for high-income households.

Obama and congressional Republicans say they hope to avert the coming blow, which stands to suck roughly $500 billion out of the economy in 2013. But both sides are bracing for another epic showdown in the weeks after the November election, as Democrats prepare to use Taxmageddon to break the partisan impasse over taxes that has blocked action on an array of issues, from modernizing the nation’s infrastructure to taming the national debt.

Since they took control of the House last year, congressional Republicans have needed nothing from Obama. They were the holdouts, demanding big cuts in federal spending in exchange for helping Obama keep the government open and raise the legal limit on government borrowing, known as the debt ceiling.

But in December, deadlock will cut the other way. Republicans need Obama if they want to prevent one of the biggest tax increases in U.S. history — nearly $5 trillion over the next decade, by official estimates — and block deep cuts to the Pentagon that could be triggered as part of last summer’s debt-ceiling accord.

The tax shock is set to occur after the Nov. 6 election but before the new Congress — and potentially a new president — take office two months later. While the outcome of the contest is likely to color the tax debate, Obama will either be freshly reelected or on his way out and, therefore, free to play hardball with Congress.

Lori Montgomery