Assume today is March 16, 2016. Natasha Kingery is 30 years old and has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science. She is currently employed as a Tier 2 field service representative for a telephony corporation located in Seattle, Washington, and earns $38,000 a year that she anticipates will grow at 3% per year. Natasha hopes to retire at age 65 and has just begun to think about the future.

Natasha has $75,000 that she recently inherited from her aunt. She invested this money in 30-year Treasury Bonds. She is considering whether she should further her education and would use her inheritance to pay for it.9

She has investigated a couple of options and is asking for your help as a financial planning intern to determine the financial consequences associated with each option. Natasha has already been accepted to both of these programs, and could start either one soon.

One alternative that Natasha is considering is attaining a certification in network design. This certification would automatically promote her to a Tier 3 field service representative in her company. The base salary for a Tier 3 representative is $10,000 more than what she currently earns and she anticipates that this salary differential will grow at a rate of 3% a year as long as she keeps working. The certification program requires the completion of 20 Web-based courses and a score of 80% or better at the end of the course work. She has learned that the average amount of time necessary to finish the program is one year. The total cost of the program is $5000, due when she enrolls in the program. Because she will do all the work for the certification on her own time, Natasha does not expect to lose any income during the certification.

Another option is going back to school for an MBA degree. With an MBA degree, Natasha expects to be promoted to a managerial position in her current firm. The managerial position pays $20,000 a year more than her current position. She expects that this salary differential will also grow at a rate of 3% per year for as long as she keeps working. The evening program, which will take three years to complete, costs $25,000 per year, due at the beginning of each of her three years in school. Because she will attend classes in the evening, Natasha doesn’t expect to lose any income while she is earning her MBA if she chooses to undertake the MBA.

1. Determine the interest rate she is currently earning on her inheritance by going to the U.S. Treasury Department Web site (treasury.gov) and selecting “Data” on the main menu. Then select “Daily Treasury Yiled Curve Rates” under the Interest Rate heading and enter the appropriate year, 2016, and then search down the list for March 16 to obtain the closing yield or interest rate that she is earning. Use this interest rate as the discount rate for the remainder of this problem.

2. Create a timeline in Excel for her current situation, as well as the certification program and MBA degree options, using the following assumptions:

   • Salaries for the year are paid only once, at the end of the year.

   • The salary increase becomes effective immediately upon graduating from the MBA program or being certified. That is, because the increases become effective immediately but salaries are paid at the end of the year, the first salary increase will be paid exactly one year after graduation or certification.

3. Calculate the present value of the salary differential for completing the certification program. Subtract the cost of the program to get the NPV of undertaking the certification program.

4. Calculate the present value of the salary differential for completing the MBA degree. Calculate the present value of the cost of the MBA program. Based on your calculations, determine the NPV of undertaking the MBA.

5. Based on your answers to Questions 3 and 4, what advice would you give to Natasha? What if the two programs are mutually exclusive? That is, if Natasha undertakes one of the programs there is no further benefit to undertaking the other program. Would your advice be different?

“Minister of labour, Thulas Nxesi, has gazetted South Africa’s new minimum wage which will take effect from 1 March 2020. The gazette states that the new national minimum wage is R20.76 – an increase of 3.8%”. Adapted from:

https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/374920/6-planned-laws-that-government-hasjust-announced-for-south-africa/ Accessed: 21/02/2020

Provide a discussion on the welfare effect of the above, that illustrates the case for when the above results in unemployment in the market for domestic workers as well as a case for when the above has no effect on the market for domestic workers. Use a diagram to support your discussion.

1. A startup company has 750,000 dollars in equity and borrowed 250,000 dollars from a bank. It’s just started to search for customer order of next year sales and forecast that the estimated sales is 100,000 dollar on January 2020 and keep growing at 10% rate every month till last month of the next year. Sales will be 60% in cash and 40% in net30 credit, and expect 5% bad debt from total monthly sales. The average gross profit is 30%. Raw material will be purchased one month in advance and pay cash in order to get cash discount. The office rent cost 20,000 per month, labor cost 30,000 per month, and other administration cost 10,000 per month will be paid at the end of the month. The minimum cash on-hand policy is 50,000. On 1 December2019, the cash-on-hand is 200,000. If in any month that additional cash is needed, it will borrow from bank in multiple of 10,000 with interest at 12%. And if in any month that extra cash is available, it will invest in marketable securities in multiple of 10,000 with return of 12%. Please prepare the cash budget.

Forte Inc. produces and sells theater set designs and costumes. The company began operations on January 1, 20Y6. The following transactions relate to securities acquired by Forte Inc., which has a fiscal year ending on December 31, 20Y6:

Prepare and record a 8-10 minute Kaltura presentation with a Power Point that summarizes your reflection on the learning experience within the MBA degree program. This is not reflection of this course, but rather an reflection of the comprehensive MBA program and your assessment of your achievement.

It should reflect your candid assessment of the level of achievement of degree’s overall Learning Outcomes listed below:

1. Construct a situational analysis in order to develop business strategies and tactics.
2. Integrate legal, ethical, and socially responsible constructs to make sound business decisions.
3. Apply interpersonal oral communication with diverse audiences.
4. Appraise collaborative leadership strategies to manage, influence, and lead in a global environment.
5. Apply appropriate quantitative and qualitative inquiry methods to solve business problems.

For each of the five learning outcomes, use your graduate-level critical/evaluative thinking skills and the four questions below to guide your reflection about your personal level of achievement

a) In which of these MBA degree program outcomes have achieved significant proficiency? Provide (cite) examples from the work you have done throughout the course of your degree to support your response.

b) Which Learning Outcome(s) did you not achieve proficiency? Where or in what courses or experiences within the course of the MBA degree program did these challenges manifest the most? Explain fully and provide examples.

c) Reflecting on your MBA degree experience, what would you have done differently to overcome the challenges reflected in the learning outcomes in which you judge yourself to have less proficiency?

Lastly, as you conclude the paper, state your overall assessment of the program; its content, delivery and relevance to your professional/career goals.   Based on this encompassing assessment, would you recommend the program to an individual considering it?

This assignment is graded on the basis of how well you support the evaluative statements and conclusions you make. It is NOT scored on the favorability of the comments – so, your candid, honest reflection on your growth in personal knowledge, skills and abilities as well as relevance of the learning to YOU is the true value of completing this assignment.

Congratulations! You have decided to leave your career as a personal tax accountant to pursue a startup idea you have been thinking about for a long time. You are going to launch a new app that tracks all of your personal tax information throughout the year, so that you don’t have to load anything come tax time. You want this app to fully integrate with users payroll, investment accounts, and any other system that creates tax liability. You have validated this as a pain and see tremendous potential. You are an expert on personal taxation with over 10 years in the industry, but you are ready for a new challenge. About You: You do not have skills as a software developer, but you are excellent at tax law and procedures. You have never raised money before, but you have friends that are entrepreneurs that might know some investors. You have some experience in customer relations, but you have never run a full marketing campaign, especially for an online company. You know you cannot launch this company alone and have decided that you want to add at least one partner to the help you build this product. Through extensive networking and interviewing you have narrowed your search down to three individuals. All have expressed interest in joining your team for the right deal. Here are the three individuals:

1) Your former co-worker Jane. Jane has never worked in a startup environment, but she started her career as a very junior software engineer at Turbo Tax, a popular and large online tax program. Jane moved to your accounting firm where she was a software engineer for your firm’s internal accounting software. She has 15 years of experience as a software engineer and is well regarded as a strong engineer. You like Jane but only know her professionally. Jane is open to different roles with the new venture.

2) Your Aunt Jessica has expressed an interest in joining your team. Jessica has 25 years of experience starting and running a successful lifestyle business. Last year, out of nowhere, her company was acquired for $10 million. She wants a new opportunity and is willing to invest her time and some money, but wants an active role in management of the company, meaning you might take more of a product development role.

3) Through a networking event you met a serial entrepreneur named Maya. Maya started her career as a software developer, and has developed several different apps that she has tried to turn into startups. One of her apps, a grocery-tracking program, raised $2.5 million from angel investors and venture capitalists. After 3 years she had to close the company when they were unable to raise additional capital. You have been given positive recommendations from a friend who worked with Maya in the past, but you worry about her focus and if she will be motivated. Maya is looking to be a true co-founder in any venture she undertakes. Question

1A?: Evaluate the following candidates and make a decision on which candidate to hire. Be sure to evaluate the pros and cons of ?each person? in your answer: (20pts) Question

1B:? Based on who you decided to bring on the team, tell me what ?role/title? they should have and ?propose an equity package? that you think would convince them to join the team. ?Be sure to justify why you divided equity this way, it is not enough to just give me numbers?. (20pts)

ABC Energy Corp. (the “Company”), an SEC registrant, operates three manufacturing facilities in the United States. The Company manufactures various household cleaning products at each facility, which are sold to retail customers. The U.S. government granted the Company emission allowances (EAs) of varying useable years (i.e., the years in which the allowance may be used) to be used between 2015 and 2030. Upon receipt of the EAs, the Company recorded the EAs as intangible assets with a cost basis of zero, in accordance with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) accounting guidance for EAs. The Company has a fiscal year end of December 31.

As background, in an effort to control or reduce the emission of pollutants and greenhouse gases, governing bodies typically issue rights or EAs to entities to emit a specified level of pollutants. Each individual EA has a useable year designation. EAs with the same useable year designation are fungible and can be used by any party to satisfy pollution control obligations. Entities can choose to buy EAs from, and sell EAs to, other entities. Such transactions are typically initiated through a broker. At the end of a compliance period, participating entities are required to either (1) deliver to the governing bodies EAs sufficient to offset the entity's actual emissions or (2) pay a fine. The Company currently emits a significant amount of greenhouse gases because of its antiquated manufacturing facilities. The Company plans to upgrade its facilities in 2024, which will decrease greenhouse gas emissions to a very low level. On the basis of the timing of the upgrade, the Company currently anticipates a need for additional EAs in fiscal years 2020–2024.

However, upon completion of the upgrade, the Company believes it will have excess EAs in fiscal years subsequent to 2024 because of reduced emissions as a result of the upgrade. The Company currently has forecasted the updates to its facilities will cost approximately $15 million. As the Company operates in a capital intensive industry, analysts and investors focus on a number of important ratios and measures, including working capital, capital expenditures, cash flows from operations, and free cash flow. As a result, the board of directors and management provide forward-looking guidance on these ratios and measures and expend great effort managing these results in light of the Company’s operational needs. The Company entered into the following two separate transactions in fiscal year 2020, which will impact the Company’s results as presented in the statement of cash flows, which the Company prepares under the indirect method.

            1. To meet its need for additional EAs in fiscal years 2020–2024, on April 2, 2020, the Company spent $6.5 million to purchase EAs with a useable year of 2023 from XYZ Manufacturing Corp.

2. In an effort to offset the costs of the April 2, 2020, purchase of 2023 EAs, the Company sold EAs with a useable year of 2026 to DEF Chemical Corp. for $5 million.

Required:

1. What is the appropriate classification in the statement of cash flows in the Company’s December 31, 2020, financial statements for its purchase of 2023 EAs from XYZ Manufacturing Corp.?

2. What is the appropriate classification in the statement of cash flows in the Company’s December 31, 2020, financial statements for its sale of 2026 EAs to DEF Chemical Corp.?

3. Should these cash flows be reported at gross amounts or net amounts in the 2020 statement of cash flows?

Be sure to cite appropriate authoritative support for your answer from the Accounting Standards Codification.