If you thought you detected a downward bump in your paycheck last week, you weren’t imagining things.
The IRS is implementing a nationwide “adjustment” in payroll tax withholding, and anyone who took possession of that precious pay stub last week — inside the calender year 2013 — likely noticed more than the 2-percent Social Security increase that has been the prominent chatter after Congress allegedly averted the “fiscal cliff.”
Employers received a new, and very complicated, tax withholding table that does not have to go into effect until Feb. 15. But Washington County Finance Director Bobbye Webb said she was advised to begin using the new table immediately.
“It was a surprise,” she said in her office Monday — a place where dozens of employees were showing up with frowns on their faces to ask what was going on. “We were going to begin this year with just the Social Security increase. But we began this, which reflects an increase in withholding beginning with the Jan. 4 pay checks. We released payroll Wednesday, and the calls have been coming ever since.”
Webb said she’s been getting loads of visitors. She also said that the county decided not to wait to make the changes, because it could be responsible for coughing up the difference in what should be taken out and what is being taken out.
The last-minute congressional “deal” included sidestepping — for now —- the reinstatement of almost every tax cut enacted since 2001 that were set to expire. That would have cost the average household about $3,500 a year, according to the Tax Policy Center.
As things stand now — before Congress resumes further haggling — the average American household’s tax bill for 2013 will increase by $1,250, or about $25 a week.
For most Americans, the biggest immediate impact is coming from the expiration of a two-year tax “holiday” enacted in 2010. That former tax break accounts for about 2 percent of wages. Tack on the Social Security withholding increase, and the adjusted withholding table, and you’ve got less take-home pay.
“It’s hard to say the average increase is this or that, because you’ve got one person that files single and another that’s married and another that has certain pre-tax deductions,” Webb said. “One person’s taxes may have gone up 4 percent; another person, 6 percent.”
That doesn’t sound drastic. But consider that your payroll tax rate is now back to where it was in 2009, before Congress cut the tax to help boost the economy. That bit of legislation added an average of about $20 a month to American households. Now? Well, they want it back to help spackle the deficit.
Webb said the county uses software that computes all the various rates and other factors and that she has not yet had time to sit down and figure out how exactly the numbers work out when a person makes a specific amount.
“It’s very complicated,” she said. “It hit our checks, too, and we’re not all that happy.”
um, really... writes:
January 8, 2013
4:05 PM
obama HAD to let this expire so he'd have a means to fund his failing obamacare, so the lazy, good for nothing, none working mooching dregs of society could continue to laze in their govt housing, eating food bought with food stamps which gives them money to support their smoking, drinking or drug habit, and squirting out child after child so they can continue to draw money they are in NO WAY entitled to!
yeah, makes me want to keep working to support THEM... sheesh!
tiredoldgal writes:
January 9, 2013
7:22 AM
I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the uninformed comments blaming the Democrats for a tax increase. The Republicans wanted *everyones* taxes to increase. They blocked extending these tax breaks that expired. Thank your Rep. Dr. No Roe for the increases in taxes taken from your paycheck.
chevymantn writes:
January 9, 2013
12:34 PM
I call it the babysitting welfare tax increase.
um, really... writes:
January 9, 2013
4:25 PM
uninformed??? it WAS the dems/obama that kept smirking on camera wanting their way or the highway. it was the repubs that had to finally give in just to get the cliff done before it was too late. obama made no misconceptions that he wanted what HE wanted or he wouldn't sign it, not the repubs.
and what the repubs wanted wouldn't PENALIZE the working class by allowing the slums to continue to prosper "scott-free" at the working class's expense. i don't know about you but when i see somebody whip out the food stamp card to pay for groceries, then grab up their smartphone to chit chat...that makes my blood boil!! meanwhile, i'm working 40 to 50 hour weeks scrounging and using coupons just to maintain a budget! yeah, i want more of my tax dollars going to pay for those obamaphones! smh...
everyone has to pay taxes. that's a given. taxes are supposed to pay to fund the military, government, etc. it's when i learn my taxes are being allocated to the likes of programs like obamacare, obamaphones, etc... that it becomes ludicrous! i guarantee our founding fathers had no intention of tax dollars being misused like they are today, whether it be welfare or government officials' "allowances and job perks".
i'm sorry, i just don't get how so many so easily turn a blind eye to what's actually spiraling this country into financial and economic ruins. when you have the majority of the population drawing their "free" benefits and living off handouts they don't deserve.... DUH! it's gonna happen sooner than later. that's not politics, that's business finance 101. nobody, no country, no government can succeed when the outgo is far surpassing the income and nothing is being done to slow the outgo. they just keep hemorrhaging more to them. it's like they're saying "sure have another baby, uncle sam'll take care of them all"! it's stupid!!
and what's even worse is the programs are set up to further encourage learned laziness as opposed to encouraging self-reliance, aka SELF RESPONSIBILITY. those people need a swift kick in the hind-end and be forced to be responsible for themselves, not continue to be allowed to abuse the system that was set up to help the truly helpless.
last time i checked LAZINESS WAS NOT A HANDICAP and should NOT be rewarded with food stamps, medicaid, etc funded by the hard workers of the country. and having child after child was never a career option when i was growing up but seems that so many these days are doing just that. the more kids, the more "free" checks mailed to support them. heck, they should start including that as a check box under occupation!
it's getting old.......
um, really... writes:
January 10, 2013
9:12 AM
"If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increase a single dime. I repeat: not a single dime." ~Barak Obama- 2/24/2009
OOPS!! thought we'd forgot did he??
provided.