Determine the taxable amount of Social Security benefits for the following situations.

If required, round your answers to the nearest dollar. If an amount is zero, enter "0".

a. Tyler and Candice are married and file a joint tax return. They have adjusted gross income of $40,800 before considering their Social Security benefits, no tax-exempt interest, and $14,280 of Social Security benefits. As a result, $fill in the blank 1 of the Social Security benefits are taxable.

If a taxpayer's income exceeds a specified base amount, as much as 85 percent of Social Security retirement benefits must be included in gross income. The taxable amount of benefits is determined through the application of one of two formulas that utilize a unique measure of incomemodified adjusted gross income (MAGI).