College

Claudia's filing status on last year's tax return was Single, while Angelo's was Head of Household. If both had taxable incomes of [tex] \$83,667 [/tex], how did the amounts of taxes they paid compare according to the table below?

[tex]
\[
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
\textbf{Taxable Income} & \textbf{Single} & \textbf{Married filing jointly} & \textbf{Married filing separately} & \textbf{Head of Household} \\
\hline
83,000 - 83,050 & 16,967 & 13,131 & 17,379 & 15,609 \\
83,050 - 83,100 & 16,981 & 13,144 & 17,393 & 15,621 \\
83,100 - 83,150 & 16,995 & 13,156 & 17,407 & 15,634 \\
83,150 - 83,200 & 17,009 & 13,169 & 17,421 & 15,646 \\
83,200 - 83,250 & 17,023 & 13,181 & 17,435 & 15,659 \\
83,250 - 83,300 & 17,037 & 13,194 & 17,449 & 15,671 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\]
[/tex]

Compare the tax amounts for Claudia and Angelo based on their filing statuses.

Answer :

We start by noting that the tax table provides the tax amounts for different filing statuses in small income intervals. For incomes in the interval around \[tex]$83,667, we base our calculations on the values provided in the last row (for incomes between \$[/tex]83,250 and \[tex]$83,300), since the pattern shows that single filers pay a higher tax than those filing as head of household.

For a taxable income near \$[/tex]83,667, the figures used are:

- For a single filer, the tax is
[tex]$$17\,037.$$[/tex]
- For a head of household, the tax is
[tex]$$15\,671.$$[/tex]

The tax difference between a single filer and a head of household is calculated as follows:
[tex]$$
\text{Tax Difference} = 17\,037 - 15\,671 = 1\,366.
$$[/tex]

Thus, the individual filing as Single pays \$1,366 more in taxes than the individual filing as Head of Household.