4. A car dealer leases a supercomputer with machine learning software for $5000. The improved productivity and reduced labor costs result in net savings of $1000 per year, increasing at $50 per year for each year it is in use for its estimated life of 10 years. How long does it take to recover the initial investment at 10% per year interest rate.

9. tax types: taxes are classified based on whether they are applied directly to income, called direct taxes, or to some other measurable performance characteristic of the firm, called indirect taxes. identify each of the following as a “direct tax,” an “indirect tax,” or something else: a. corporate income tax paid by a japanese subsidiary on its operating income b. royalties paid to saudi arabia for oil extracted and shipped to world markets c. interest received by a u.s. parent on bank deposits held in london d. interest received by a u.s. parent on a loan to a subsidiary in mexico e. principal repayment received by u.s. parent from belgium on a loan to a wholly owned subsidiary in belgium f. excise tax paid on cigarettes manufactured and sold within the united states g. property taxes paid on the corporate headquarters building in seattle h. a direct contribution to the international committee of the red cross for refugee relief i. deferred income tax, shown as a deduction on the u.s. parent’s consolidated income tax j. withholding taxes withheld by germany on dividends paid to a united kingdom parent corporation

Blue computers, a major pc manufacturer in the united states, currently has plants in kentucky and pennsylvania. the kentucky plant has a capacity of 1 million units a year and the pennsylvania plant has a capacity of 1.5 million units a year. the firm divides the united states into five markets: northeast, southeast, midwest, south, and west. each pc sells for $1,000. the firm anticipates a 50 perc~nt growth in demand (in each region) this year (after which demand will stabilize) and wants to build a plant with a capacity of 1.5 million units per year to accommodate the growth. potential sites being considered are in north carolina and california. currently the firm pays federal, state, and local taxes on the income from each plant. federal taxes are 20 percent of income, and all state and local taxes are 7 percent of income in each state. north carolina has offered to reduce taxes for the next 10 years from 7 percent to 2 percent. blue computers would like to take the tax break into consideration when planning its network. consider income over the next 10 years in your analysis. assume that all costs remain unchanged over the 10 years. use a discount factor of 0.1 for your analysis. annual fixed costs, production and shipping costs per unit, and current regional demand (before the 50 percent growth) are shown in table 5-13. (a) if blue computers sets an objective of minimizing total fixed and variable costs, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? (b) if blue computers sets an objective of maximizing after-tax profits, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? variable production and shipping cost ($/unit) annual fixed cost northeast southeast midwest south west (million$) kentucky 185 180 175 175 200 150 pennsylvania 170 190 180 200 220 200 n. carolina 180 180 185 185 215 150 california 220 220 195 195 175 150 demand ('000 units/month) 700 400 400 300 600

You work as the sales manager for a company that sells office supplies to businesses of all sizes. because the profit margins are razor-thin, you need to ensure that you are getting the very best prices on paper, pencils, pens, post-it notes, and other office supplies from the manufacturers. when reviewing the quarterly profit statement, you realize that your costs are higher than they should be, and you trace the higher costs back to an employee who has been lax about getting competitive bids to ensure the lowest prices. when you conduct your research to determine the reason for the higher costs, and take action to bring those costs back down, in which of the key management processes are you taking part?