Ben is employed as a carpenter and his wife, marilyn, is a self-employed consultant. besides ben’s salary, ben and marilyn own a condominium that they rent to tourists and do not use personally. this year they paid $2,200 for utilities in the condo. marilyn also paid self-employment tax of $4,200 and ben had $3,000 of social security taxes withheld from his pay. which of the following is a true statement? a. one-half of ben's social security tax is deductible for agi
b. the cost of utilities is deductible for agi
c. marilyn's self-employment tax is not deductible
d. only the $2,200 utility bill is deductible for agi
e. none of the above is true

Alamar petroleum company offers its employees the option of contributing retirement funds up to 5% of their wages or salaries, with the contribution being matched by alamar. the company also pays 80% of medical and life insurance premiums. deductions relating to these plans and other payroll information for the first biweekly payroll period of february are listed as follows: wages and salaries $ 2,800,000 employee contribution to voluntary retirement plan 92,000 medical insurance premiums 50,000 life insurance premiums 9,800 federal income taxes to be withheld 480,000 local income taxes to be withheld 61,000 payroll taxes: federal unemployment tax rate 0.60 % state unemployment tax rate (after futa deduction) 5.40 % social security tax rate 6.20 % medicare tax rate 1.45 % required: prepare the appropriate journal entries to record salaries and wages expense and payroll tax expense for the biweekly pay period. assume that no employee's cumulative wages exceed the relevant wage bases for social security, and that all employees' cumulative wages do exceed the relevant unemployment wage bases.