{"id":4903,"date":"2012-06-14T14:43:57","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T20:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/?p=4903"},"modified":"2012-06-14T14:43:57","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T20:43:57","slug":"taxmageddon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/?p=4903","title":{"rendered":"Taxmageddon!"},"content":{"rendered":"

DECEMBER 2012 AND ‘TAXMAGEDDON’: <\/strong>December 2012 marks the end of a cycle of the Mayan calendar which some say may result in a possible Armageddon; but even the Mayans couldn\u2019t have predicted the coming \u201ctaxmageddon\u201d that will occur if the government doesn\u2019t act on a number of tax hikes and spending cuts before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

December 2012 may be a very busy month for lawmakers on Capitol Hill as Congress will be facing some of the biggest fiscal decisions it may ever make.\u00a0 Ominously labeled \u201ctaxmageddon,\u201d a host of tax cuts and breaks, including the Bush tax cuts, will all expire at the end of the year.\u00a0 At stake are billions of dollars in fiscal decisions to be handled potentially by a lame-duck Congress during the short weeks between the November election and New Year\u2019s Eve.\u00a0 If handled poorly, the fragile economic recovery could be in jeopardy and Americans could be facing the largest tax hike in the nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Could anyone have predicted that at the end of 2012 all of the special tax breaks, all of the Bush tax cuts, the payroll tax holiday for workers, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) \u201cpatch,\u201d the unemployment benefits extension, and even the Medicare \u201cdoc fix\u201d would all expire at the same time that the debt ceiling would need to be raised again\u2014making it more likely that the lame-duck Congress would doom an already fragile economic recovery?\u00a0 Is it all just coincidence?<\/p>\n

The potential economic firestorm that is programmed to hit in January 2013 could spell disaster for the middle class and small businesses.\u00a0 It appears unlikely that Congress will suddenly be able to agree to a deal over spending cuts and tax increases when they have not been able to reach one over the past several years.\u00a0 And with both parties wanting to run on tax policy in this election, an early resolution isn\u2019t expected.\u00a0 The most likely scenario will be that they \u201cpass the bucks,\u201d literally billions of them, into the hands of the new Congress.<\/p>\n

Many of these tax breaks have been on a \u201cpermanent-temporary<\/a>\u201d basis, like the AMT, which is \u201cpatched\u201d yearly to avoid a large middle-class tax increase.\u00a0 Those in favor of continuing the system of \u201ctemporary\u201d extensions argue that it allows for regular congressional review.\u00a0 Those in favor of making these breaks permanent, however, argue that no real review process occurs, and that many of these breaks are treated as if they are permanent already, and delaying their extensions weakens them.\u00a0 \u201cIf these provisions are never allowed to lapse, as past history would suggest, the practice of proposing short-term extensions with an expectation they will be renewed again substantially understates their true long-run budgetary cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, if nothing happens between now and the end of December, it could mean an almost immediate recession, with Americans facing the largest tax hike in history, some $500 billion per year.\u00a0 The situation is tenuous, and the budget hole continues to deepen.\u00a0 Meanwhile, both parties continue talking past one another and the differences seem irreconcilable\u2026feeding the \u201ctaxmageddon\u201d beast.<\/p>\n

With America hanging on the edge of a very deep fiscal abyss, wouldn\u2019t it be great if Congress actually did something to serve \u201cWe the People\u201d and put party differences aside to enact some sort of comprehensive reform?\u00a0 It would take a lot of political courage, but the rewards would benefit all of us.\u00a0 Is it likely? Probably not.\u00a0 Meanwhile, \u201ctaxmageddon\u201d looms large on the horizon, and those tasked with dealing with it are yet unwilling \u201cto kill the beast.\u201d\u00a0 Maybe those “doomsday” prophecies aren’t that far out after all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DECEMBER 2012 AND ‘TAXMAGEDDON’: December 2012 marks the end of a cycle of the Mayan calendar which some say may result in a possible Armageddon; but even the Mayans couldn\u2019t have predicted the coming \u201ctaxmageddon\u201d that will occur if the government doesn\u2019t act on a number of tax hikes and spending cuts before the end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-articles","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4904,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4903\/revisions\/4904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}