'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 >>

Survey: Only 23 percent of U.S. companies plan to grow staff

Here's a sobering attitude check: the European debt crisis, coupled with fears that the U.S. economy is going to go off the so-called fiscal cliff in 2013, have put U.S. companies in a particularly grumpy mood.

Sixty-two percent of businesses don't plan on making any hires in the next six months—a significant uptick from the 48 percent who said the same thing back in April, according to the National Association for Business Economics. Only 23 percent of of those businesses polled in June said they planned to add staff in the second half of 2012.

In other words: the worsening we've been seeing with monthly unemployment numbers will continue. And the political fisticuffs between President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney will only get fiercer. Read more >>