Problem 3-35 (LO. 3, 4)
Determine whether the individuals will qualify as the taxpayer's dependent in each of the following independent scenarios. Specify whether the dependency exemption would come under the qualifying child category, the qualifying relative category, or "not applicable" (if the individual does not qualify as a dependent).
a. Andy maintains a household that includes a cousin (age 12), a niece (age 18), and a son (age 26). All are full-time students. Andy furnishes all of their support.
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b. Jackie provides all of the support of a family friend's son (age 20), who lives with her. She also furnishes most of the support of her stepmother, who does not live with her.
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c. Raul, a U.S. citizen, lives in Costa Rica. Raul's household includes his friend Helena, who is age 19 and a citizen of Costa Rica. Raul provides all of Helena's support.
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d. Karen maintains a household that includes her ex-husband, her mother-in-law, and her brother-in-law (age 23 and not a full-time student). Karen provides more than half of all their support. Karen is single and was divorced last year.
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In: Accounting
Agency is a contractual relationship, involving an agent and a principal, in which the agent is given the authority to represent the principal in dealings with third parties. The most common example is an employer-employee relationship wherein an agent (employee) is given the power by a principal (employer) to act on his or her behalf. An agent may be an employee or an independent contractor. A principal is a person who employs an agent to act on his or her behalf.
A principal (employer) has full control over his or her employee. The employee must complete the work assigned by following the instructions of the employer. An independent contractor is an individual hired by an employer to perform a specific task. The employer has no control over the methods used by the independent contractor. The following are among those who act independently of an employer: electricians, carpenters, plumbers, television repairpersons, and automobile mechanics. brokers, and investment advisors. Independent contractors may also employ others in their Independent contractors also include professional agents such as lawyers, physicians, accountants, securities brokers, insurance brokers, real estate field who will be bound to them as employees.
In: Accounting
Question 1: Netflix would like to carry out market research to understand the online interactions among fans of its original programming such as ‘Orange is the New Black’ and ‘House of Cards’. Netflix hopes to use these customer insights to understand what aspects of these programmes make them so popular. What research approach would best help Netflix gather this type of information from viewers? Explain your choice. (10 marks – approximately 500 words / 1 page).
The information about Netflix is above
Netflix Case: Netflix Uses Technology to Change How We Watch Videos
When Netflix was founded in 1997 in the United States, the movie rental giant Blockbuster had thousands of stores from coast to coast, filled with video cassettes ready for immediate rental to customers (Pride et al., 2018). Netflix had a different vision from this well-established, well-financed competitor. Looking at the recent development of DVD technology, Netflix saw an opportunity to change the way consumers rent movies. The entrepreneurial company built its marketing strategy around the convenience and low cost of renting DVDs by mail, for one low monthly subscription fee.
Instead of going to a local store to pick out a movie, subscribers logged onto the Netflix website to browse the DVD offerings and click to rent. Within a day or two, the DVD would arrive in the customer’s mailbox, complete with a self-mailer to return the DVD. And, unlike any other movie rental service, Netflix customers were invited to rate each movie on the Netflix website, after which they’d see recommendations tailored to their individual interests (Pride et al., 2018).
Fast-forward to the 21st century. Video cassettes are all but obsolete, and Blockbuster, once the dominant brand in movie rentals, has only one remaining shop in the US as consumer demand has shifted to digital distribution for entertainment (Porter, 2019). In Australia, both Blockbuster and Video Ezy still had a brand presence in 2018 (Pride et al., 2018). Since then, Blockbuster’s last Australian shop closed in March 2019 (Porter, 2019), and Video Ezy exists in the form of vending machines (kiosks) after its shops closed (Rosenberg, 2018).
Both brands have been prompted to reassess their distribution channels. You may notice more DVD rental kiosks such as “Video Ezy Express” popping up in convenient locations, including outside supermarkets and shopping complexes, in a bid to improve brand reach and accessibility. DVD rental kiosks, like online services, are accessible around the clock and reduce many store costs, including wages.
In contrast, by completely eliminating the need for brick-and-mortar stores or kiosks, Netflix has minimised its costs and extended its reach to any place that has postal service and Internet access (Pride et al., 2018). The company still rents DVDs by mail (Monahan & Griggs, 2019), but it has also taken advantage of changes in technology to add video streaming on demand.
Now, customers can stream movies and television programmes to computers, television sets, videogame consoles, DVD players, Smartphones, and other web-enabled devices. One advantage to the company is that streaming a movie costs Netflix less per customer than paying the postage to deliver and return a DVD to that customer.
Netflix’s Use of Technology: From Data-Tracking to Streaming
Netflix made technology a core competency from the very beginning. Because the business has always been web-based, it can electronically monitor its customers’ online activity and analyse everything that customers view or click on.
With this data, Netflix can fine-tune the website, determine which movies are most popular among which market segments, prepare for peak periods of online activity, and refine the recommendations it makes based on each individual’s viewing history and interests. The company also uses its technical know-how to be sure that the website looks good on any size screen, from a tiny Smartphone to a large-screen television.
A few years ago, planning for a significant rise in demand for streaming entertainment, Netflix decided against investing in expanded systems for this purpose. Instead, it arranged for Amazon Web Services to provide the networking power for streaming (Pride et al., 2018).
By 2018, on a typical night in the US, Netflix streaming occupied up to 20,000 servers in Amazon data centres (Pride et al., 2018). Demand was so strong by that time, in fact, that Netflix streaming accounted for about one-third of all internet traffic to North American homes during the evening (Pride et al., 2018). This percentage is only expected to increase. The Australian market, however, may pose technological hurdles, as the National Broadband Network is still being rolled out and is not available in all areas, meaning that accessibility may not be as straightforward as it is in America (Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, n.d.).
Although Blockbuster and Video Ezy are no longer a competitive threat in their traditional form, Netflix does face competition from Amazon’s own video streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, which headed to Australia and New Zealand’s shores in 2017 (Pride et al., 2018).
Other direct competitors include well-established Hulu, YouTube, Nine Entertainment, and
Fairfax media’s joint-venture Stan, and Foxtel’s movie-streaming service Presto. It also competes with other entertainment providers, including cable, satellite, and broadcast television. Foxtel, for example, has dramatically reduced its basic cable packages in an effort to retain its share of the market in face of increasing competition from on-demand services (Pride et al., 2018).
Netflix Offers Exclusive Programming to Customers
To differentiate itself from its competitors, Netflix commissioned exclusive programming such as House of Cards, Arrested Development, and Orange is the New Black. The cost to produce such programs runs to hundreds of millions of dollars (Pride et al., 2018). Between May–December 2019, Netflix added 179 original programmes to its American streaming service, or an average of 30 new shows a month, or about one show per day (Fruhlinger, 2019). Netflix plans to continue pouring money into exclusive content because of the payoff in positioning, positive publicity, and customer retention.
The way that Netflix releases its exclusive programming reflects its in-depth knowledge of customer behaviour. The company found through its data analysis that customers often indulge in ‘binge watching’ for a series they like, viewing episodes one after another in a short time.
Based on this research, in 2013 Netflix launched all 13 episodes of the inaugural season of House of Cards at one time, an industry first (Pride et al., 2018). Executives gathered at headquarters to monitor the introduction, cheering as thousands of customers streamed episode after episode. By the end of the first weekend, many customers had watched the entire series and shared their excitement via social media, encouraging others to subscribe and watch. When Netflix won multiple Emmy Awards for House of Cards, it was another first—the first time any Internet company had been honoured for the quality of its original programming.
One key measure of Netflix’s growth is the strong increase in the number of monthly subscribers. In 2015, Netflix had about 70 million subscribers worldwide, of which 26 million were located outside the US (Pride et al., 2018). In 2019, Netflix had 151 million paid subscribers worldwide (158 million if free trials are included) (Kafka, 2019).
Despite the brand only launching in Australia in March 2015, it already has close to 2 million subscribers in 2018 (Pride, 2018). By July 2019, Netflix had more than 11.6 million subscribers in Australia, up 18% from the year prior (Gruenwedel, 2019) Its closest direct competitor, Stan, had 2.6 million subscribes in early 2019 (Knox, 2019).
Netflix will not say how many subscribers that it has in New Zealand, but a recent survey of 1,000 people, commissioned by the Office of Film and Literature Classification and carried out by UMR Research, found that 72% of respondents subscribed to Netflix. Of the same respondent sample, 77% said they watched television shows and movies using a paid online service (Kenny, 2019).
Keys to Netflix’s successful launch include offering free-trials and access to stripped-back free versions, as well as continued investment in original programming. It appears that streaming is the new broadcasting, and that ‘on-demand’ spells the demise of scheduled entertainment.
In: Operations Management
What are the drawbacks for a company who does not allocate overhead costs to its products? Why might a company do this and what other controls would they have to implement to insure optimal performance?
In: Finance
Can you please type out the answer
A random sample of n = 12 individuals is selected from a
population with µ = 70, and a treatment is administered to each
individual in the sample. After treatment, the sample mean is found
to be M = 74.5 with SS = 297. Is there evidence to indicate that
your sample is significantly different from the population using
α=.05? calculate the effect size for your results.
In: Statistics and Probability
Physiology, Respiratory system
Under resting conditions, approximately 25% of the oxygen is extracted from the oxygenated blood into the tissues to maintain their basal metabolic need. Describe (with all the possible mechanisms) how an individual can increase the unloading of oxygen from the oxygenated blood into the working tissues during exercise. (Worth 15 marks)
Please answer it so its worth about 15 marks
In: Anatomy and Physiology
St. Augustine in the 5th Century held that we are free to make choices in life. This is the idea of free will. It may seem at first glance odd for a religious thinker to say that we have free will. After all, if God exists, then God created all things. God knows already what we will do. God can cause anything to occur. If we cause things to occur, that seems to be a limitation on the power of God and not make God all-powerful. There are also religion traditions that say that we have no free will. There are some theologians in Islam who seem to suggest that is true. In order for this line of reasoning to hold true, one would need to believe free will is an illusion and that we have no control over how we live our lives, but rather that we are puppets moving and acting due to God's will and the powers of destiny and fate. And if this then in the case, how can we possibly be responsible for our actions? The considerations above show us to what degree our religious beliefs can shape us. For instance, someone who believes in free will may experience way more guilt than someone who believes we don't have free will and thus aren't responsible for the choices (and consequences) of the actions we take. Personal struggles with religion and ethics occur in many places, including in the healthcare arena. Consider the following: You are a nurse in a hospital. A 12 year-old was brought to the hospital by an ambulance. The parents have just arrived at the hospital. This 12 year-old has lost a large amount of blood and requires a transfusion. The parents happen to be members of a religion that believes that blood transfusions are immoral. They want to remove the child from the hospital and prevent the transfusion even if it means the death of the child. You have to decide whether or not you will participate in an action that violates the will of the parents and aid in providing blood for the child. If you choose to participate, and even if you are able to legally justify it, you have to think about the distress you are creating for the parents. If you refuse to aid here, you may be subject to retaliation from the hospital. What is the moral thing for the nurse to do here? Initial Post Instructions For the initial post, address the following questions: What would a divine command ethicist say is the moral thing to do here? Why would they say that? Do you agree with the divine command ethics? Why or why not? Evaluate what a natural law ethicist would say is right to do. Do you agree with them? Why or why not? Given what you said are the right things to do, what would an emotivist say about your positions and judgments? What role does subjectivity play here in determining what is ethical?
In: Nursing
2. Assigning Overhead to individual jobs – a. Predetermined Overhead rate is used to assign overhead costs to individual jobs in a manner which approximates their relative usage of overhead items based on estimated data that is established before the period begins. b. But by definition, overhead cannot be directly traced to individual jobs. Predetermined Overhead Rate = Estimated Total Factory Overhead Costs Estimated Activity Base Predetermined Overhead Rate Example: • Assume total manufacturing overhead is estimated to be $ 10,000,000 • Estimated total direct labor hours are estimated to be 50,000 hours Predetermined Overhead Rate: Why use estimated data? • Waiting until the year is over to determine actual overhead costs would be too late. Managers want cost data immediately. • Overhead rates, if based on actual costs and activity, would vary substantially from month to month. Much of this variation would be due to random changes in activity. Process: At the beginning of the year we estimate our total manufacturing overhead costs $ Then we estimated our total activity base … this is either direct labor hours or machine hours. Calculate our predetermined overhead rate. Apply to individual jobs based on actual labor hours. PLEASE COMPLETE THE CHART BELOW: Jobs Actual Hours Overhead Rate Overhead applied McDonalds 1,050 $200 Tunnel 2,900 $200 Target 6,000 $200 Stadium 40,120 $200 50,070
In: Accounting
The following is a list of 12 control plans from this chapter, followed by a list of 10 examples of System Failures or problem situations that have control implications: Match the 10 system failures with a control plan that would best prevent the system failure from occurring.
Because there are 12 control plans, you should have two letters left over. Control Plans
A. Batch sequence check
B. Confirm input acceptance
C. Programmed edit checks
D. Manual agreement of batch totals
E. Online prompting
F. Cumulative sequence check
G. Electronic approvals
H. Document design
I. Procedures for rejected inputs
J. Compare input data with master data
K. Turnaround documents
L. Digital signatures System Failures
1. At Wynne Company, customer orders are received in the mail in the sales department, where clerks enter individual orders into the company’s computer system and then file the completed orders in a filing cabinet. Customers should receive an acknowledgement for each of their orders. When the customer fails to receive an acknowledgement, the customer calls to inquire. Inevitably, the sales clerk will find the customer’s order filed with other customer orders that had been entered into the computer. The “missing” orders are always marked as “ENTERED”.
2. The tellers at Mason Bank have been having difficulty reconciling their cash drawers. All customer transactions such as deposits and withdrawals are entered online at each teller station. At the end of the shift, the computer prints a list of the transactions that have occurred during the shift. The tellers must then review the list to determine that their drawers contain checks, cash, and other documents to support each entry on the list.
3. Data entry clerks at Dora Company use networked PCs to enter batches of documents into the computer. Recently, a number of errors have been found in key numeric fields. The supervisor would like to implement a control to reduce the transcription errors being made by the clerks.
4. At Central Inc., clerks in the accounting offices of the company’s three divisions prepare pre-numbered general ledger voucher documents. Once prepared, the vouchers are given to each office’s data entry clerk, who keys them into an online terminal. The computer records whatever general ledger adjustment was indicated by the voucher. The controller has found that several vouchers were never recorded, and some vouchers were recorded twice.
5. Purchase orders at Hickory Corp. are prepared online by purchasing clerks. Recently, the purchasing manager discovered that many purchase orders are being sent for quantities far greater (i.e., incorrect quantities) than would normally be requested.
6. At Quality Brokers, Inc., a clerk on the trading floor mistakenly entered the dollar amount of a trade into the box on the computer screen reserved for the number of shares to be sold and then transmitted the incorrect trade to the stock exchange’s computer.
7. At Pilot Company, clerks in the cash applications area of the accounts receivable office open mail containing checks from customers. They prepare a remittance advice (RA) containing the customer number, invoice numbers, amount owed, amount paid, and check number. Once prepared, the RAs are sent to a clerk who keys them into the computer. The accounts receivable manager has been complaining that the RA entry process is slow and error-prone.
8. Dancer Company enters shipping notices in batches. Upon entry, the computer performs certain edits to eliminate those notices that have errors. As a result, many actual shipments never get recorded.
9. Jamie the hacker gained access to the computer system of United Bank and entered the data to transfer funds to his bank account in the Cayman Islands.
10. At Lockhart Company., data entry clerks receive a variety of documents from many departments throughout the company. In some cases, unauthorized inputs are keyed and entered into the computer.
In: Accounting
Veekay Company was organized on November 1 of the previous year. After seven months of start-up losses, management had expected to earn a profit during June, the most recent month. Management was disappointed, however, when the income statement for June also showed a loss. June’s income statement follows.
Sales $660,000
Less operating expenses
Selling and administrative salaries $ 39,000
Rent on facilities 40,000
Purchases of raw materials 219,000
Insurance 10,000
Depreciation, sales equipment 11,000
Utilities costs 55,000
Indirect labour 119,000
Direct labour 99,000
Depreciation factory equipment 13,000
Maintenance factory 8,000
Advertising 80,000 691,000
Operating loss $(31,000)
After seeing the $31,000 loss for June, Veekay's president stated, "I was sure we'd be profitable within six months, but after eight months we're still spilling red ink. Maybe it's time for us to throw in the towel. To make matters worse, I just heard that Debbie won't be back from her surgery for at least six more weeks."
Debbie is the company's controller; in her absence, the statement above was prepared by a new assistant who has had little experience in manufacturing operations. Additional information about the company follows:
a. Only 85% of the rent on facilities applies to factory operations; the remainder applies to selling and administrative activities.
b. Inventory balances at the beginning and end of June were as follows:
June 1 June 30
Raw materials $19,000 $46,000
Work in process . $77,000 $94,000
Finished goods $22,000 $76,000
c. Some 90% of the insurance and 80% of the utilities cost apply to factory operations; the remaining amounts apply to selling and administrative activities.
The president has asked you to check over the above income statement and make a recommendation as to whether the company should continue operations.
Required:
Required:
In: Accounting