date:Feb 22, 2013
e households especially hard. On Jan. 1, Social Security payroll taxes rose 2 percentage points after a temporary cut expired. That sliced about $1,000 from the take-home pay of a household earning $50,000. Since the Social Security tax is levied against income only up to $114,000, it disproportionately affects middle- and lower-income households.
An even larger challenge for many lower-income Americans has been the government's delay in processing taxes and paying refunds. That's because incom