Here's a Hint of What's Coming In January if Congress Dawdles (as I believe they will)

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From NBC News.  An excerpt:

"For most households, the two biggest tax increases – assuming Congress doesn’t act by year's end – will be the expiration of the payroll tax cut and the expiration of the 2001/2003 tax law, which included some provisions which target specific groups of Americans, such as the increased child tax credit and the increased standard deduction for married couples who file joint tax returns.

Most of the imminent tax increase – more than 60 percent of it – will be paid by people in the top 20 percent of the income distribution. The average tax increase on people on the top 20 percent of the income distribution would be $14,173 next year.

Those at the bottom end of the income scale, in the lowest income quintile, will see an average tax increase of $412 next year, while those in the middle quintile will see nearly a $2,000 increase.

For those in the bottom group, “some people who are (now) paying zero tax will be paying a little bit of tax, and some people who are getting refundable credits and paying negative taxes (in effect, getting cash payments from the Treasury) will see those refundable credits shrink,” said Roberton Williams, an analyst at the Tax Policy Center."

Couple this with shrinking SNAP budgets from an unresolved Farm Bill, shrinking Medicare/Medicaid budgets, food inflation from the drought, and unnecessarily high gas and oil prices, and you've got THE OTHER SHOE FALLING.  This is what should've been done back in 2008-2009, but Congress didn't have the guts, and now that election season's swiftly approaching and departing us, still won't have the guts to do anything until January...maybe not even then, regardless of who gets elected in November.  I'm betting not even then, and am stocking my pantry as full as I can get it--once these new taxes hit us, they will likely NEVER EVER be repealed, and may even be added to.  Congress needs money to spend, and they think they can spend your money better than you--just look at the fine things Congress has bought with your money:  turtle tunnels, toilet museums, shrimp museums, monuments to long-dead sugar magnates, a bridge to nowhere in Alaska, an airport in Pennsylvania specifically for a congressman who's no longer in office, unwanted military hardware, and the list goes on.

The simplest answer for fast money would be to legalize marijuana, but they don't want to be seen aiding and abetting the enemies of the long-lost Drug War.  This administration already got caught with the Fast & Furious gun-running scandal, and I'm sure, don't want to lose face in the same way over drugs!

Something else that isn't being discussed much:  your state and local tax hikes.  These are separate and above what the federal hikes are going to do to you.  My own city is talking about reversing the property tax breaks kindly given in the last 3 years, so my mortgage payment is going to go up whether I like it or not--the question is BY HOW MUCH.  I'm pretty sure your state may do the same or something similar, like raise sales tax rates, raise utility tax rates, gas taxes, install a soda tax, and/or find additional ways to hike your taxes.

If you haven't studied up on ways to minimize your tax burden with the current tax laws (2013 files for 2012), it's probably too late now.  What you CAN do is learn how to minimize taxes once the new tax laws are set in stone--for every law, there's a loophole.  Congress sees to that for their own use--your job is to find it and use it yourself, because you really can't afford to fund more toilet museums, bridges to nowhere, or one-man airports with Obamacare just around the corner!