The voices of Tax Policy Center's researchers and staff
Following Congress’s last minute passage of legislation averting a plunge off the fiscal cliff, TPC has released a new Tax Calculator that lets users examine the effects of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA). As with earlier versions, the new calculator compares income and payroll tax liabilities under alternative scenarios:
- ATRA, the tax law that will apply in 2013.
- 2012 tax law (with an AMT patch). This is what you paid in 2012, including the now-expired payroll tax cut and a patched AMT.
- Pre-ATRA 2013 tax law. This is what you would have paid if Congress hadn’t acted and we’d gone over the fiscal cliff for all of 2013.
(More details on these plans, including their treatment of the AMT and estate taxes, are available here.)
To make things easy, you can look at ready-made examples or create your own case.
 a non-elderly childless couple |
 a couple with a child in college |
 a couple with two children under age 13 |
 a single person |
 a single mother with two children |
 a couple over age 65 |
Check out our new calculator and see how the different tax plans would affect real families.