Social Security tax

Consumer Confidence Plunges as Payroll Tax Holiday Ends

U.S. consumer confidence plunged in January to its lowest level in more than a year, reflecting the cut to take-home pay nearly all working Americans were hit with after Washington allowed a temporary Social Security payroll tax holiday to expire.

Pop Quiz! Who's Winning the Tax Game (and By How Much)?

To get a handle on our nation's economic problems, it helps to start with the facts. But not all of them are as obvious as you'd think, so we're compiling some of the most surprising for our readers. Think you know all the answers? Take our quiz and see.

Gas Prices Drain U.S. Consumers' Tax-Cut Savings

Americans are earning and spending more, but a lot of the extra money is going down their gas tanks. Gas prices have drained more than half the extra cash Americans are getting this year from a cut in Social Security taxes.

Job Growth Is Likely Next Year -- but How Much?

Economists generally expect employers to steadily add more workers in 2011, perhaps as many as 250,000 a month by year-end. However, with so many long-term unemployed returning to the market, the jobless rate could still outpace those new positions.

Obama's Tax Deal Will Save At Least One Job: His

The $858 billion compromise tax bill passed the House Thursday at midnight, and is on its way to President Obama's desk. With its passage, and the GDP growth it will propel, his reelection is more in the bag than ever. What effect it will have on jobs for the rest of America, though, is far less clear.

What Will Obama's Tax
Deal Do for Investors?

The biggest question many investors have about President Obama's compromise tax cut deal is how it will benefit the economy. But so far, there is little agreement on Wall Street about what the stimulative effects of the deal will be.