Free Republic

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday clarified that President Biden’s proposed tax hike would apply to people who earn $200,000 per year if they are married to someone who makes the amount. Psaki said at her daily press briefing that the proposed $400,000 threshold for tax increases applies to “families” rather than individuals. The clarification significantly lowers the tax-hike threshold announced by Biden in an ABC News interview that aired Wednesday. Biden’s interview statement appeared to indicate the cutoff would be $400,000 in individual income. “Yes, anybody making more than $400,000 will see a small to a significant...

It will be up to Washington to save the country from what the Washington Post has dubbed “Taxmageddon” — the looming tax increase set to hit Americans on Jan. 1. Curtis Dubay, a senior analyst in Tax Policy at the Heritage Foundation, has chronicled the taxes set to hit if Congress and the administration do not make adjustments. According to Dubay, Americans will see a $494 billion tax increase at the beginning of 2013. “[The tax increase] is hitting because of expiring tax policies and the beginning of five taxes in Obamacare,” Dubay told The Daily Caller. Dubay’s study of...

From Mitt Romney to Warren Buffett, people are clamoring for fairer taxes. But thanks to yet another lapse by our lawmakers in Washington, more than 20 million taxpayers may pay a tax that was originally designed to hit only the ultra-rich -- and the increase could cost you as much as $8,000. When it was first designed, the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, was meant to make taxes more fair. The idea behind the AMT was to make sure that rich people didn't use deductions to zero out their taxes every year. Because of inflation, though, the AMT threatens to...

Following comments from Senate Democrats expressing willingness to extend Bush tax cuts, the White House dispatched Tim Geithner to kill the buzz. Tim just announced Obama's plans to let the tax cuts expire for wealthy Americans in January, according to WSJ. Which is what people expected all along. WSJ: Mr. Geithner said there is "still some uncertainty about how strong the recovery is going to be," which may be impacting spending decisions by businesses and individuals. But he discounted that as a reason to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for top earners, saying most private forecasts show moderate economic growth...

One more small detail they forgot to tell you about in the health care bill: Taxpayers earning less than $200,000 a year will pay roughly $3.9 billion more in taxes — in 2019 alone — because of healthcare reform, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’ official scorekeeper for legislation. The new law raises $15.2 billion over 10 years by limiting the medical expense deduction, a provision widely used by taxpayers who either have a serious illness or are older.

From Section 6002 on page 1435: INCLUSION OF COST OF EMPLOYER-SPONSORED HEALTH COVERAGE ON W–2The definition of taxable income is revised to include "the aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored coverage". . . "The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2009."