How the fiscal cliff affects IT

Since the election, the political news cycle has revolved around the impending "fiscal cliff," a perfect storm of tax increases and government spending cuts set to take effect on Jan. 2, 2013. Although the information technology industry may not have paid much attention, it's just as susceptible to the policy changes as the rest of the economy.

The policy changes range from the removal of tax provisions for small businesses to massive cuts in spending on federal programs. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that, if these policy changes are not altered by the turn of the year, the US economy could plunge back into recession in 2013, with real gross domestic product dropping by 0.5 percent and unemployment shooting back up to 9.1 percent. Network World spoke with Lamar Whitman, director of public advocacy for CompTIA, and Richard Davis, managing director covering enterprise software for investment bank Canaccord Genuity, about the specific tax and government spending changes that could have the most significant impact on IT companies, as well as how they could protect themselves.