Excerpt from: About.com (click for full article)
After some last minute shenanigans and political posturing, in the wee hours of January 1, 2013 the U.S. Senate passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act ("ATRA" for short) by a margin of 89 to 8. The U.S. House of Representatives, after initially balking at the provisions of ATRA, which does not include any significant spending cuts, ended up passing the bill around 11 p.m. on January 1 by a margin of 257 to 167. Shortly after the House passed ATRA, President Obama made a public statement in support of it and then within 30 minutes was whisked away to his Hawaiian vacation home, where he signed the bill into law using an autopen on January 2, 2013.
Now that all of the drama over avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff has ended, below is a summary of what ATRA means for American taxpayers in 2013 as well as some retroactive changes for 2012.
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