How Would the Fiscal Cliff Affect Your Tax Bill?

Makine Sen$e -- December 10, 2012 at 3:55 PM EDT

How Would the Fiscal Cliff Affect Your Tax Bill?

Ettore Sottsass, Summa 19 Electronic Printing Calculator, 1970. Manufactured by Ing. C. Olivetti & C. S.p.A., Italy. Photo courtesy of the Denver Art Museum.

As we all watch the folks in Washington wrangle over how to avert the fiscal cliff, here's how to look at the potential impact on your taxes. On the broadcast Monday, Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy Center breaks down some of the tax breaks that are on the negotiating table.

Williams was also the chief designer of this calculator which helps you figure out how your tax bill will be affected under different policy scenarios. Since it was posted on the TPC's site 10 days ago, over 80,000 people have run almost 200,000 scenarios.

This entry is cross-posted on the Making Sen$e page, where correspondent Paul Solman answers your economic and business questions.

Follow @paulsolman

Beginning October 24, 2012, PBS NewsHour will allow open commenting for all registered users. We hope that the elimination of our moderation process will enable a more organic discussion amongst you, our audience. However, if a commenter violates our terms of use or abuses the commenting forum, their comment will be removed. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.