Here’s Credit Suisse chart of how much everyone’s after tax income will be reduced in 2013 relative to 2012. You can see that almost everyone is worse off this year thanks to the expiration of the payroll tax holiday. Very rich households, however, will see a much bigger tax hike than the rest of us. That’s what Obama achieved in the deal.
Conversely, there’s that weird bracket of people $200,000-$500,000 families who are actually seeing a smaller tax increase than lower-income households. That’s because these are families that had a lot of income that isn’t subject to the payroll tax and who don’t make enough to be seriously impacted by the higher marginal rates or the PEP and Pease provisions. Saving these folks’ bacon was Mitch McConnell’s big win.
