Obviously, enacted in 2013, this law signed by President Obama made many previously temporary tax rates permanent, forever and ever (at least until the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was passed). Highlights of the ATRA included squashing the expiration of tax breaks, kicking the can down the road on governmental spending cuts, and jacking up tax rates on rich folks.
Individuals making less than $400,000 (or $450,000 for married couples) saw their tax rates held constant with rates put into place under President George W. Bush. However, rates for incomes above that level, as well as estate taxes, were increased. Rates were also updated for capital gains and dividends (15% for most people, with a 20% maximum) while tax credits were set in stone for costs related to raising children.
Again, many of the affected rates were changed in 2017 so, while potentially interesting from an historical perspective, much of the ATRA ceased being applicable in 2018. Plop, plop, fizz, fizz.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is Laissez Faire?9 Views
Finance a la shmoop what is laissez faire? alright well you know the
Renaissance Fair you know about playing fair and what about with laissez faire?
French term for more or less a Beatles [Beatles band singing]
song yeah let it be well as it applies to economics let it be means that the
economy is smarter than we are or at least a better arbiter of what works
what doesn't and what is fair ish so the ideology of laissez faire argues that
economic forces should be allowed to work themselves with maximum freedom and
minimal government interference part of the logic is purely economic government [Stash of cash appears]
involvement is friction bureaucrats who insert their noses only serve to hit the [Car driving uphill and approaches woman with stop sign]
brakes on the economy and make transactions more expensive by applying
taxes, ever been to the DMV and you know gotten the angry stare from the woman
whose Facebook page updating you just interrupted while hoping to get your [Dog on a leash appears]
license renewed yeah that's big government at work friction tax dollars
being spent to employ that woman instead of just figuring out a website that'll
let you go do it all on your own for about one millionth of the cost but part
of the argument of laissez faire is ethical, laissez faire advocates argue that
government interference distorts the natural and equitable forces of economic
development like think global warming for economics courtesy of our carbon [Earth heating up]
pollution otherwise known as regulatory friction slowing down the natural forces
of the commercial markets well in the heyday of laissez faire economics in
the last decades of the 19th century you really could buy happiness money was
pretty much everything government could be bought and it was kind of not a real
force without money behind it right kill someone well, you pay a fine of 199.95
kind of the way you know mexico works today
so what's fair about laissez faire? is it fair to have no minimum wage well laissez faire [Scribbles appear on graph of federal minimum wage]
would say yes but john steinbeck you know The Grapes of Wrath guy yeah he
would say no no and a half the logic is that human being
needing to eat will do pretty much anything to feed their kids right and [Man using shovel]
can't blame them will they work for just five bucks an hour to pay for that last
meal and probably a dollar an hour if it'll feed their last kid yeah you bet
fair well maybe among cave people but not today [Cave people by a fire]
but then there are other perspectives to consider like is it fair to have child
labor laws? if kids want to earn money cobbling shoes or making straw hats or
working 16-hour days in a stock brokerage or at shmoop...
shouldn't they be allowed to do so what do you think fair
not fair laissez faire yeah we don't know for sure what do you think? [People in shmoop boardroom]
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