Paying Taxes Practice Test

To determine the decrease in Social Security benefits when they are reduced by 13%, you first need to calculate 13% of the given salary, which in this case is $54,000.

To find 13% of $54,000, you can multiply the salary by 0.13:

$54,000 × 0.13 = $7,020.

This calculation reveals that a 13% decrease would result in a reduction of benefits amounting to $7,020 annually. Since this matches the calculated decrease with the provided option, that makes it the correct answer to the question.

It’s important to remember that the decrease represents a direct percentage of the salary, which is standard practice when calculating percentage reductions.