Another storm looming on the horizon. Only this one involves tax increases. "Taxmageddon".

People on the East Coast just went through a horrific storm.  Well, another enormous storm is looming on the horizon.  Only this one isn't an act of nature but of Congress. They are the massive tax increases due to kick in unless Congress acts.  The Heritage Foundation is calling it Taxmageddon.

A horrifying combination of expiring pro-growth tax policies from 2001 and 2003, the end of the once-temporary payroll tax cut, and just a few of Obamacare’s 18 new tax hikes, Taxmageddon will be the largest tax increase EVER to hit Americans. It’s nearly $500 billion in one year, starting January 1. That’s two months away.

The number $500 billion is rather large and abstract, so The Heritage Foundation has broken down the expected tax increases per person just for 2013:

• Families with an average income of $70,662: tax increase of $4,138
• Baby boomers with an average income of $95,099: tax increase of $4,223
• Low-income workers with an average income of $24,757: tax increase of $1,207
• Millennials with an average income of $23,917: tax increase of $1,099
• Retirees with an average income of $42,553: tax increase of $857

Note the above taxes increases which will result - Family with $70,662 in income would see a $4,138 tax increase.  A consequence of not addressing it is the possibility of another recession.

And if that isn’t scary enough, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has forecasted another recession in the coming year. The last thing this country needs is another recession, after years of high unemployment and months of a sluggish, barely noticeable recovery.

The tax hikes will hit small businesses very hard—and not just any small businesses, but the ones that create jobs. As Heritage’s Curtis Dubay and Romina Boccia explain:

The businesses that would pay the higher tax rates proposed by President Obama earn almost all the income earned by small businesses that employ workers. According to President Obama’s own Treasury Department, these job creators earn 91 percent of the income earned by flow-through employer-businesses. These are the biggest, most successful small businesses. They employ more than half the private workforce, according to an Ernst and Young study. Raising their taxes would destroy more than 700,000 jobs.

The answer?  Made permanent the current tax code.