2013 Capital Gains Tax

     One of the changes scheduled to go into effect for 2013 is an increase in the capital gains tax rate to 20% for most taxpayers.  (For taxpayers in the 15% bracket, the rate will be 10%.)
     The prospect of this tax increase coupled with the addition of an Obamacare surtax of 3.8% for people in upper income brackets is prompting some people to accelerate asset sales so that they are completed in 2012 instead of 2013.
     This year the capital gains tax rate for people in the 25% bracket and above is 15%, and there is no Obamacare surtax.  People in brackets below 25% do not pay capital gains tax at all!
     It is widely hoped that the increase in the capital gains tax will be one of the things that will be changed by Congress before the end of the year, but no one knows if that change will actually be made.