Consider cases where the number of withholding allowances is less than 6. which will cause the amount of federal income tax withheld to increase?

the correct answer would be the third option

(a) x intercepts: -6 and 2

you can obtain these by solving the equation 0=x^2 +4x-12 using your favorite quadratic formula. but it is easy to verify -6 and 2 indeed satisfy this equation.

(b) y intercept: -12

this is obtained by setting x=0: 0^2+4*0-12 = -12

(c) the minimum value is: -16 (this is the vertex)

you can get the vertex by rewriting the equation into the form:

there is no global or local maximum as the function goes to infinity, so only in the limit sense: +infinity.