Saturday, January 05, 2013

LACK OF HONESTY IN FISCAL CLIFF COMPROMISE

From the Wall Street Journal.  The debate on tax rates is above most people's level of financial expertise. 

The revival of two dormant provisions of the tax code means the much ballyhooed $450,000 income threshold for the highest tax rate is largely fake.

After a discussion of the statistics, here is the writer's conclusion:

Mr. Obama purports this is merely "a return to the Clinton-era tax rates." But capital-gains rates will be about three to five percentage points higher than in the 1990s, the Medicare tax is higher, and his stealth tax will raise personal rates higher than advertised. Forget the golden Clinton memories. Mr. Obama is pushing the U.S. back to the Carter era.

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