US tax law changes: View from the cliff

First of three parts
JUST AS THE US Congress was about to take US taxpayers over the cliff, standing by and allowing massive tax increases and across-the-board budget cuts to kick in under previous legislation, cooler heads prevailed. The parties agreed to a limited package of tax increases, revisions, and extensions of key provisions that were about to “sunset,” and that avoided the so-called “Fiscal Cliff.”