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Depreciation Methods Wendy\'s boss wants to use straight-line depreciation for t

ID: 2743969 • Letter: D

Question

Depreciation Methods

Wendy's boss wants to use straight-line depreciation for the new expansion project because he said it will give higher net income in earlier years and give him a larger bonus. The project will last 4 years and requires $600,000 of equipment. The company could use either straight-line or the 3-year MACRS accelerated method. Under straight-line depreciation, the cost of the equipment would be depreciated evenly over its 4-year life (ignore the half-year convention for the straight-line method). The applicable MACRS depreciation rates are 33.33%, 44.45%, 14.81%, and 7.41%. The company's WACC is 10%, and its tax rate is 30%.

What would the depreciation expense be each year under each method?

Which depreciation method would produce the higher NPV?
-Select-Scenario 1Scenario 2Item 9
How much higher would it be? Round your answer to the nearest dollar.
$  


Year Scenario 1
(Straight Line) Scenario 2
(MACRS) 1 $   $   2 $   $   3 $   $   4 $   $  

Explanation / Answer

Part A

Straight line method:

In this method the amount of depreciation expense will be same for all four years.

Depreciation expense = (cost of asset – salvage value)/ life of the project

                                                = (600,000 -0)/4

                                                = 15,000

MACRS method

In this method, amount of depreciation will be cost of asset times macrs rate for the year.

year

Cost

Macrs rate

Depreciation

1

600000

33.33%

199980

2

600000

44.45%

266700

3

600000

14.81%

88860

4

600000

7.41%

44460

Part B

Here we need to compute total present value of depreciation under both the methods. To compute PV, we need to multiply each depreciation amount with respective PV factor.

Year

CF A

CF B

PV factor 10%

PV A

PV B

1

150000

199980

0.90909

136363.6

181800

2

150000

266700

0.82645

123966.9

220413.2

3

150000

88860

0.75131

112697.2

66761.83

4

150000

44460

0.68301

102452

30366.78

Total PV

475479.82

499341.83

Hence, NPV would be higher under MACRS depreciation method.

Difference =499,341.83-475,479.82

= 23862.02

year

Cost

Macrs rate

Depreciation

1

600000

33.33%

199980

2

600000

44.45%

266700

3

600000

14.81%

88860

4

600000

7.41%

44460

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