Your Fiscal Cliff Tax Increase: Number Crunching on Income Levels, Including Hispanics
We've been monitoring the situation on the fiscal cliff status. And now with the package passed by Congress, the question we are asking is: What's going to be the impact on me? And what does this mean for everybody else? We number crunched the below chart to try and get a grip on what'll be happening to our taxes next!
For Hispanics, the majority of tax payers fall into the $10,000 to $39,999 wage bracket and those in that bracket can expect to see anywhere up to a $445 out of pocket increase in cash spent on taxes. The average of the tax impact on salaries appears to be 1% (i.e. $400 average on $40,000 income and $2500 on $250,000). Nonetheless even at just 1%, at a lower income level it will be harder for wage earners to part with that cash than on those earning in the $250,000. The impact will be greater on those with less cash in their pocket as every dollar counts a little more - when you have less dollars to go around. - Thalia Valencia
Methodology
We pulled together the chart below from the U.S. Census's most recent survey on Income by Race which was released in 2009. Then we added the estimates of fiscal cliff related household average tax increases released by the Tax Policy Center in the column on the far right. Also, we included the Pew Hispanic Center's estimates on average Hispanic salaries in major metropolitan areas calculated from 2010 figures.
What do you think?
| Income interval | 2009 | |||||
| Percent distribution | ||||||
| All races | White/ Caucasian | African-American | Asian | Hispanic | Average Out of Pocket,Tax Increase | |
| Under $10,000 | 5.2 | 4.2 | 11.3 | 4.3 | 8.8 | |
| $10,000 to $19,999 | 7.6 | 6.7 | 13.9 | 6.1 | 13.7 | |
| $20,000 to $29,999 | 10.1 | 9.5 | 14.2 | 7.5 | 14.7 | $ 297 |
| $30,000 to $39,999 | 9.9 | 9.7 | 12.0 | 7.6 | 13.1 | $ 445 |
| $40,000 to $49,999 | 8.9 | 8.8 | 9.4 | 6.7 | 10.0 | $ 579 |
| $50,000 to $59,999 | 8.3 | 8.5 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 8.2 | $ 822 |
| $60,000 to $74,999 | 11.0 | 11.4 | 8.6 | 9.8 | 9.7 | $ 822 |
| $75,000 to $84,999 | 6.2 | 6.5 | 5.4 | 5.5 | 4.6 | $ 1,206 |
| $85,000 to $99,999 | 7.3 | 7.6 | 5.2 | 6.9 | 4.9 | $ 1,206 |
| $100,000 to $149,999 | 14.9 | 15.7 | 8.1 | 19.4 | 8.2 | $ 1,784 |
| $150,000 to $199,999 | 5.7 | 6.0 | 2.4 | 8.9 | 2.3 | $ 1,784 |
| $200,000 to $249,999 | 2.4 | 2.5 | 0.7 | 4.4 | 0.9 | $ 2,711 |
| $250,000 and above | 2.6 | 2.8 | 0.9 | 5.0 | 1.0 | $ 2,711 |
