Hunter is a single 45-year-old who is employed by an engineering firm that includes a diverse array of taxable and nontaxable fringe benefits within the overall compensation package it offers its employees. Employees receive a base salary in addition to occasional incentive awards (i.e. bonuses); the incentive awards are often in the form of noncash perks. The company also offers different forms of equity-based compensation to reward its highest performing employees.

Hunter does not itemize deductions, and he does not have any available tax credits or estimated tax payments. His employer withheld $23,668 from his paychecks for income tax withholding.

Hunter's base salary for calendar-year 2018 was $101,350. He embarked on an all-expenses-paid 5-day Caribbean cruise in April 2018, which he received from his employer in lieu of a cash bonus. The cruise and related travel expenses would have cost Hunter $4,025 if had paid for the trip out-of-pocket. His employer agreed to give Hunter an extra $1,375 in cash to cover his tax liability on the value of the cruise (referred to as a "tax gross-up"). Tax gross-up payments are included on an employee's paycheck as ordinary wages subject to income and payroll taxes.

Hunter also took advantage of the following pre-tax payroll deductions:

• Annual employee contribution to employer's 401(k) qualified plan = 6% * $101,350 base salary = $6,081/year (his employer provides a 75% match as well, i.e. $4,560.75/year)
• Annual employee contribution to a flexible spending account ("FSA") = $2,400/year
• Annual employee contribution to health insurance plan = $1,440/year

Compute the amount of cash that Hunter saved in 2018 because he chose to take advantage of payroll deductions made available to him by his employer. Hint: Payroll deductions related to 401(k) contributions only reduce the amount of an employee's taxable wages reported on Form W-2, Box 1 (i.e. employees still owe FICA taxes on the portion of their payroll deductions related to 401(k) contributions). In contrast, payroll deductions related to flexible spending accounts and health insurance premiums reduce the amount of an employee's taxable wages reported on Form W-2, Boxes 1, 3 and 5.

Hunter's marginal tax rate of 24% (income tax rate only) and 31.65% (income tax rate + Social Security tax rate + Medicare tax rate) should be used as applicable for this analysis and your answer should be shown as a positive amount and rounded to ZERO decimal places.