Earlier this morning I saw an article on kcbd.com discussing the tax breaks the new stimulus offers, and who qualifies for what. A segment of the article can be found below, but the full post can be read here.
A study of the recovery plan shows most households will qualify for a tax break. Boost for some could be worth several hundred to several thousand dollars.
Roughly 97% of American households could see tax savings as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to a new analysis by a nonpartisan research group.
The Tax Policy Center crunched the numbers and concluded that the average savings would be $1,179. But how much a household actually gets depends on income, marital status and whether a filer has children. The savings range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand.
The law, which President Obama signed on Tuesday, contains a range of tax breaks for individuals. Those likely to affect the greatest number of households are the new Making Work Pay credit worth up to $400 ($800 for joint filers); a patch to protect middle- and upper-middle-income families from having to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax; and expansions of the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit for low-income families.
There are also breaks that address specific situations: a new credit for first-time home buyers, a sales tax deduction for car buyers and a new credit to help pay for college tuition. For people receiving unemployment benefits, the first $2,400 will be tax free.
On Saturday, Obama said the government had already taken action on the broadest of the law's cuts -- the Making Work Pay.
The Treasury Department has told employers to reduce the amount of taxes withheld from paychecks by April 1. Treasury estimates that a typical family will begin taking home about $65 more per month, according to Obama.
