Child and Dependent Care Credit:

a. Trudy is Jocelyn's friend. Trudy looks after Jocelyn's four-year-old son during the day so Jocelyn can go to work. During the year, Jocelyn paid Trudy $4,000 to care for her son. What is the amount of Jocelyn's child and dependent care credit if her AGI for the year was $30,000?

b. Assume the same facts, except that Trudy is Jocelyn’s daughter who is 21 and is not claimed as a dependent by Jocelyn.

c. Heather and Mike are married. They have one daughter who is five years-old. Their total AGI for the year is $75,000. Heather works full-time and earned $70,000 in salary. Mike works part-time and earned $2,500 in wages. They paid $3,500 to a daycare for their daughter.

d. Tom has two sons ages 6 and 14 that lived with him for all of 2020. The 14 year-old has a severe mental disability that prevents the son for caring for himself. Tom paid $10,000 for the year to a professional care provider to care for his sons at Tom’s house. Tom’s AGI for the year is $100,000 Show work and Explain Answer

According to the expectations theory, what is the expected one-year treasury security rate (i.e. forward rate, f) three years from today if today’s rates on treasury securities of different maturities are as follows:

One-year US Treasury Note: 4.5%

Two-year US Treasury Note: 4.8%

Three-year US Treasury Note: 5.2%

Four-year US Treasury Note: 5.3%

Five-year US Treasury Note: 5.3%

Question: Recommend the best method of foreign trade financing for an Indian Textile Exporter who is growing steadily year by year. The company exports textiles abroad mainly to US and Europe. As business has increased, the requirement for funds to finance international trade has increased as well.

The options available for the company are:
- Line of credit
- Letter of credit
- Factoring (With recourse or without recourse)
- Forfaiting
- Export Import Bank of India which offers a wide range of services which includes project exports, providing loans, extending letters of credit and guarantees, extending lines of credit, buyer’s credit, marketing advisory services, offering Term Loans, and extends financial support to create export capability in grassroots enterprises.
- Exim Bank has an overseas investment finance program whereby they provide facilities such as loan to Indian companies to invest in overseas ventures, extends letters of credit and guarantees.
​​​​​​​- Foreign credit insurance

A stock sells for $40. The next dividend will be $4 per share. If the rate of return earned on reinvested funds is 15% and the company reinvests 60% of earnings in the firm, what is the expected rate of return on the stock?

Background

The Internal Audit Department of a state-supported university was in the process of performing a scheduled audit of a school within the university that had several academic departments. The internal auditor developed an audit program, which included academic auditing departments within the school having potentially higher risk levels, based on factors such as funding levels, number of funding sources, and number of students. Internal Audit performed this type of audit each year rotating between the various schools within the institution. Audit objectives routinely included evaluating compliance with university policies and procedures relating to procurement, payroll, and cash collections and deposits.

Selected Department

Departments were selected based on the criteria of the audit objectives and discussions with school management. One of the academic departments selected had approximately 30 faculty members, seven administrative staff members, and a nationally recognized graduate program. In addition to being responsible for the academic programs, the department also conducted several functions that provided contract services to the community on a fee basis. Each fund source was recorded in a separate account, and the department had more than 90 accounts. The fund types included state funding, private donations, state and federal grants and contracts, and industry-sponsored contracts. Fund amounts ranged from a low of $1,500 to several which exceeded $100,000. Each type of fund had different requirements relating to how and for what the funds could be expended.

Participants

Faculty members were paid a salary for providing teaching, research, and performing community service in the name of the university. Their contracts were typically for nine months each year. They were allowed to supplement their salary for the remaining three months of the year through various types of grants and contracts. Faculty members were also allowed to work, usually as consultants, up to one day per week outside of the university and were paid directly by the party with whom they were consulting. The consulting fees were personal income for the faculty member and were not processed through the university in any manner.

The department chair had been at the university for more than ten years and was recognized as a faculty leader through various programs at the university. He had held the chair position for five years and was classified as an instructional faculty member with an administrative appointment. Under the guidelines of the university, he received additional compensation for the extra administrative duties he performed as the chair. He was considered a 12-month employee. Therefore, he was not allowed to supplement his university salary in any manner, including summer school teaching or additional funding through a grant.

The university policy stated that department chairs reported to the Dean of the academic college or school. However, in this case, there had historically been little or no review of the department’s finances by the Dean or his representative.

The core administrative staff had been in the department for a number of years. The staff consisted of the chair’s secretary (three years in the department), a business manager (more than 10 years in the department), and a fiscal tech (more than 20 years in the department). The business manager was responsible for the fiscal management of the department and the fiscal tech prepared the financial transactions at the direction of the chair and the business manager.

The financial transactions of the department were initiated using the university’s on-line financial accounting system. In order to provide the chair and appropriate faculty members with timely management data, the fiscal tech also used a series of spreadsheets to manage each account. These spreadsheets provided up to the minute information regarding each account rather than the reports from the university system, which were usually received about ten days after the end of each month.

The fiscal tech prepared the financial transactions based on direction from the chair, appropriate faculty members, or the business manager. The business manager was responsible for approving all financial transactions. However, the business manager shared her password with the fiscal tech as she believed that she didn’t have time to approve each transaction. The fiscal tech then had the ability to approve and enter transactions, despite the fact that she only had the on-line authority to initiate transactions.

Within the last year, the administrative staff had received salary increases for exemplary performance. The raises were given at the direction of the chair.

Situation

The institution had numerous financial policies and procedures that were fragmented and not well communicated. These procedures were available on-line. Training was available, but it was not required. The department personnel had received the training. Implementation of the financial policies and procedures was delegated to the departmental level with minimal review by central organizations to ensure adherence to these policies and procedures.

The internal auditor performed the review. The major finding resulted in a recommendation that monthly reconciliations of each departmental account be performed and documented and that each account be signed by the business manager, signifying certification that each expenditure was made in accordance with university policy and for university related purposes. The recommendation was fully supported by the Dean, and he ordered all departments to immediately implement the recommendation.

Allegations

When the audit was completed and the above finding was being implemented, university management received an anonymous tip. The caller alleged that a department chair had been paying personal bills from university accounts and that other irregularities had occurred within the chair’s department.

Required. Answer the questions in paragraphs. Refer to any or all Audit regulations, i.e., AU and SAS

1) Upon receiving notification of the anonymous tip, outline the actions that you would take as the university’s auditor.

2) What controls would you look for to determine where the potential weaknesses were located?

3) How would you strengthen controls at the university level to decrease the likelihood of this type of occurrence?

A Pharma company has recently recruited 4 scientists at an average age of 27 and is looking to develop quite a few pharmacological formulations. With a view to retain them the company proposes to offer a housing scheme to them on the following terms and conditions:

1. The number of beneficiaries will be four in number
2. The total cost of purchasing apartments will be Rs.1 crore
3. PNBHFL offers an 18 year term @ 9.00% interest and HDFC offers 15 years term @ 8% interest.
4. The company will pay the housing finance company on an installment basis.
5. A Down payment of 5% of the cost of the apartment has to be made and recoverable from the employee in 24 installments. The upfront payment will be made by the company.
6. In case of availing the loan from HDFC, 50% of the installment will be recovered from the employee on a monthly basis and in case of availing the loan from PNBHFL 45% will be recovered from the employee. The option of choosing the service rests with the company only.
7. Assume that employee deductions happen on the first day of the month and housing loan payments made by the company happens on the last day of the year.
8. The housing loan is offered on a fixed interest basis and EMI will not change.
9. Assume the individual apartments are of equal value.

You are called upon to do the following:

1. Calculate the two EMI options and choose the best one.

Although the issue of death is still not comfortably thought about and discussed by most individuals, our lives are affected dramatically by the death of family members, close friends, and co-workers.  

Members in my classes have lost persons close to them during the class experience. There have also been those who were grieving the impending death of a terminally ill family member or close friend and even themselves. There are those who grieved a death by suicide or homicide.

Talking about death to someone with a terminal illness is very difficult: yet, it can be therapeutic and meaningful to the dying person to share life experiences and the fear or readiness for death. Such disclosures can be comforting for the ill person and, for the survivor, it can provide meaningful reminiscence as well as serve as a reminder to prepare for their own ultimate transition.

Cultural conceptions of death and dying vary; so, it is of interest for us to learn more about the meaning of life and death and customs and beliefs associated with D&D from your cultural perspectives. Your task, therefore, is to write a brief essay incorporating the following aspects:  

Present your personal cultural conception of dying and death. Be certain to give ethnic background, any diversity issue that would help us become more knowledgeable about different perspectives and practices.

Describe family customs to comfort/care for those with impending death.

What insight does your spiritual system give regarding death. Is there a belief in afterlife?