Question

Help please! See pic below

Answer 1

@Vocaloid and @Ultrilliam Can you help?

Answer 2

@Vocaloid

Answer 3

@Angle i'm not really a finance person, I'll ask Angle if she can assist

Answer 4

1.
Mary's income is 43000
Consider columns 1 and 2 of the given table, which row does her number belong to?

Answer 5

2.
"base amount" is the amount of tax EVERYONE has to pay on their first 25750 of income. the tax rate on this first 25750 is 15%
for example, if someone's total income is only 6000, then the total amount of federal tax they would pay is 900(=6000*0.15). but in Mary's case, she makes more than 25750 so we consider 25750*0.15 = (base amount)

Answer 6

3.
that "first 25750" does not get taxed again, it gets set aside. so the amount over (25750) that Mary makes is 43000 - 25750 = ___

Answer 7

4. self explanatory
the bracket above the base amount gets taxed at a rate of 28%
this percent comes from the second row, forth column of the given table

Answer 8

5. also self explanatory
adding these two numbers would result in the total amount of federal tax Mary has to pay.

note that if mary's income was even higher, then it would be a similar process

Answer 9

here's John Green explaining this sort of tax: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgicDQHbV3M mainly the beginning two minutes might be useful for your class
but it gets complicated from things like deductible income and child dependents... hopefully it might help