KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Politicians did pass the bill that avoids the fiscal cliff at the zero hour and the compromise means only people making more than $400,000 or couples who make more than $450,000 will see big tax increases.
That only impacts a small percentage of Americans, but 77 percent of Americans will actually end up seeing a change in their paycheck. That’s because the Social Security payroll tax break Americans have been enjoying for the last two years is about to expire.
That means a 2 percent increase in taxes being taken out of your paycheck. For example an employee making $25,000 a year will see $50 less in their paycheck this year.
At Brookside Barkery and Bath, owner Delena Stout is still working out what all this will mean for her and her business. She actually used to work in the dog eat dog world of politics, and she’s frustrated by what’s going on in DC.
“I think they’re looking at re-elections rather than what’s best for the people,” Stout said.
But Stout’s biggest concern is how less money in peoples paychecks will impact her customers spending.
“They’re going to buy dog food of course,” said Stout, “but they won’t buy that collar or that toy because it’s not in the budget and that effects us.”
Stout is also worried because she’s received half a dozen calls already from suppliers that their prices are going up because their costs are going up, and this is a tough time to raise prices.
“We just got over the hump this year we finally came over the hump,” Stout said, “and now I’m afraid we’ll slip back under the hump again.”
FOX 4’s financial analyst Kathy Stepp, is also concerned about how the tax hike and the chaos in Congress will impact the economic recovery.
“I think it will impact the job creators, if they pay more personal taxes they aren’t as likely to hire people or hire them at higher wages, they’re just not going to afford it,” Stepp said, “the issue here was so much was happening at one time people were afraid that it would effect the economy and we’d go into a recession again.”
Stout agrees and her advice for politicians actually sounds pretty similar to advice she gives to her dog food customers: don’t bite off more than anyone can chew.
“If congress can give us little bites we can handle, instead of big bites, that’s more palatable for us to digest,” she said.
