The automatic across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration are postponed for two months under a tax package passed by Congress late Tuesday, The Hill newspaper reports.By a 257-167 vote, the House voted to approve the measure, designed to avert most effects of the fiscal cliff, nearly 24 hours after the Senate approved the deal in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the report said.
The bill increases marginal tax rates on annual family incomes of up to $450,000 pushes up the top capital gains and dividends taxes to 20 percent and extends unemployment insurance benefits, Russell Berman and Pete Kasperowicz report for The Hill newspaper.
According to the Washington Post, the tax rate for family incomes in that upper bracket will increase from 35 percent to 39.6 percent and single people making more than $400,000 per year will also see that same rate increase.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said during floor debate that the legislation makes the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent, according to the Post’s report.
