Bunuel
A special municipal payroll tax charges not tax on a payroll less than $200,000 and only 0.1% on a company’s payroll above $200,000. If Belfried Industries paid $200 in this special municipal payroll tax, then they must have had a payroll of
A. $180,000
B. $202,000
C. $220,000
D. $400,000
E. $2,200,000
Kudos for a correct solution. MAGOOSH OFFICIAL SOLUTION:METHOD ONE: the step-by-step algebraic inefficiency method:
payroll tax = 0.1% of (payroll income – 200,000)
Remember that 0.1% as a decimal is 0.001.
payroll tax = 0.001*(payroll income – 200,000)
200 = 0.001*(x – 200,000)
200/0.001 = 200,000 = x – 200,000
200,000 + 200,000 = 400,000 = x
Answer = (D)
NB: this method requires one to know a couple tricky ideas about percents & decimals.
METHOD TWO: thinking about percents.
Well, 0.1% of something is $200. Multiply this by ten — then 1% of something is $2000. Now, multiply this by 100 —- 100% of something is $200,000. That’s the amount over the $200,000 baseline, so the total payroll must have been the sum, $400,000. Answer = (D)
METHOD THREE: backsolving
One would use this either if one didn’t know how to do either of the first two approaches, or simply if one thought this would be faster.
Start with (C).
Suppose payroll = $220,000. The first $200,000 is tax free, so only $20,000 is taxed at 0.1%. Well, 1% of $20,000 — knock off two zeros: 1% would be $200. Divide by ten now: 0.1% would be $20. That’s too little. Payroll must be more, so we can immediately eliminate choice (A) & (B) & (C). Even if we had no more time to work on this problem, we could employ
solution behavior very effectively at this point.
You could try another answer, (D) or (E), or you could just notice — with (C), the taxable part was ten times too small, because the payroll tax was ten times too small. We need a taxable portion that is ten times bigger — instead of $20,000, we need a taxable portion of $200,000. Add this to the baseline = $400,000.
Answer = (D).