RJ and Makay

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The IRS announced earlier this week that many tax benefits for the 2012 tax year will increase, including personal exemptions and standard deductions, due to inflation adjustments.  Tax brackets are also scheduled to widen next year.  The IRS also expanded retirement plan contribution limits on Thursday after factoring in cost-of-living adjustments tied to inflation.

It's tax time again, the time of year a lot of us feel more than a little resentment about the chunk of our earnings Uncle Sam grabs for America's coffers. Of course, as with anything else, ranging attitudes about taxes is all a matter of perspective. Perspectives differ, especially between the half of the country paying income taxes and the half that virtually don’t.

According to the latest estimates from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a Paris consortium that tracks financial conditions in 34 nations, 24% of the U.S. economy as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) goes to taxes collected by all levels of government.