As we’ve come to expect from our leaders in Washington, they battled down to the wire again to pass a bill to help us avoid the “fiscal cliff” on January 1st. As many had predicted, the temporary payroll tax break of 2% on the employee FICA tax went away causing that rate to climb back to 6.2%. One major surprise to me was that the $1,000 Child Tax Credit survived their scrutiny because there had been much speculation that the credit would be reduced to $500 per child. As you read through the article from MarketWatch, you’ll see some of the other changes that have become part of the tax code.