'Marriage penalty' could cost couples more than $2,000 in higher taxes

The return of the so-called marriage penalty could cost many couples more than $2,000 in higher 2013 taxes if Congress doesn't get its act together and fix the fiscal cliff.

As a result of the Bush tax cuts, married couples get a standard deduction that's exactly twice that of individuals. And the income ranges for the 10% and 15% tax brackets are also doubled. Prior to 2001, many married couples had paid a "penalty" because their standard deduction and income tax brackets were less than twice those of singles.

Next year the imbalance could return. While the standard deduction for single filers should rise to $6,100, married couples would receive a deduction of only $10,150 if lawmakers don't extend the provision, according to estimates by the Tax Foundation. To erase the marriage penalty, it would have to be $12,200.

Married couples would also be moved into higher tax brackets more quickly. Individual taxpayers would be in the 15% tax bracket until they hit $36,250 in taxable income, but married filers could be pushed above it after only $60,550 in income, as opposed to $72,500. Read more >>

While housing lost 31% of its value from 2006 to 2009, property taxes went up by 27%

Something remarkable happened to property taxes in the U.S. while housing lost 31% of its value from 2006 to 2009: they went up by $100 billion (27%). Equally remarkably, as we can see from this U.S. Census Bureau data on state and local tax revenues, property taxes went up even when housing slumped in the early 1990s.

So though U.S. housing continues losing value--U.S. home prices declined in January, continuing a downward trend that began in August, with average U.S. home prices retreating to summer 2003 levels, according to the S&P Case-Shiller home-price indexes--property tax revenues continue their inexorable rise. More...