After a long legislative push on New Year's Day, Congress has cleared a measure to avert most of the tax hikes and temporarily hold off the mandatory spending cuts of the "fiscal cliff." President Obama signed the bill into law on Jan. 2.
The package is largely a collection of extensions of tax provisions, and some tax hikes, affecting individuals and businesses, from large corporations to small, family-owned firms, including many in construction. It also will give design and construction firms that pursue federal contracts a short reprieve from the mandatory “sequestration” budget cuts that were to take effect on Jan. 2.