The payroll tax is scheduled to bounce back up to 6.2 percent this year from 4.2 percent in 2011 and 2012, amounting to a $1,000 tax increase for someone earning $50,000 a year.
From the Huffington Post, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said he calculates that the higher payroll tax will reduce economic growth by 0.6 percentage points in 2013. The other possible tax increases approved in the new tax bill – including higher taxes on household incomes above $450,000 a year – will slice just 0.15 percentage points off annual growth, Zandi said.
The economy doesn’t have much growth to give. Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo, predicts it will expand just 1.5 percent in 2013, down from a lackluster 2.2 percent in 2012. Unemployment stands at 7.7 percent.
