Jared and Ashley have come to you for help filing their 2022 tax return. They are married on December 31, 2022 and are both age 40. They live with their three qualifying children, Nick, Betty, and Roger, who were 12, 14, and 17 years old, respectively, at the end of 2022.
They have made the following requests:
They wish to file a joint tax return.
If they overpaid their taxes this year, they would like to receive half as a refund and have half applied to next year’s federal tax return (hint: this is a commonly missed item on the quiz).
Jared and Ashley have the following income items during 2022:
Jared’s wages of $50,000
Jared’s unemployment compensation of $5,000
Ashley’s wages of $60,000
Interest from a city of Chicago bond of $2,000
Interest from a corporate bond of $3,000
Ordinary dividends of $2,000
Gift from Jared’s father of a new computer that cost $3,000
A $3,000 refund from the State of Illinois for income taxes paid in 2021
Jared and Ashley incurred the following expenses/losses during 2022:
Contributions of $5,500 to each of Jared and Ashley’s traditional IRAs, i.e., $11,000 total (they are not covered by any other qualified retirement plans)
Qualified medical expenses of $9,000
Personal credit card interest expense of $8,000
Charitable contributions of $4,000
Ten $25 parking tickets totaling $250
Mortgage interest on primary residence of $8,000 (mortgage is $200,000)
Property taxes on the primary residence of $6,500
Illinois state and local income taxes paid of $5,500
Federal tax withholding on Jared and Ashley’s W-2s of $10,000
They also provide you with the following information about their prior year return:
On their prior year federal tax return, they claimed itemized deductions (itemized deductions exceeded the standard deduction by $5,000). And, they deducted all $9,800 of their state and local taxes on Schedule A (i.e., the SALT cap did not apply).
Jared and Ashley elected to have $139 of their 2021 tax refund applied to 2022.
What is the federal income tax