Brandon Company Is Contemplating the Purchase of a New Piece

Multiple Choice

Brandon Company is contemplating the purchase of a new piece of equipment for $45,000. Brandon is in the 30% income tax bracket. Predicted annual after-tax cash inflows from this investment are $18,000, $15,000, $9,000, $6,000 and $3,000 for years 1 through 5, respectively. The firm uses straight-line depreciation with no residual value at the end of five years.

Assume that the hurdle rate for accepting new capital investment projects for the company is 4%, after-tax. (Note: PV $1 factors for 4% are as follows: for year 1 = 0.962, for year 2 = 0.925, for year 3 = 0.889, for year 4 = 0.855, for year 5 = 0.822; the PV annuity factor for 4%, 5 years = 4.452.) At an after-tax discount rate of 4%, the estimated PV (present value) payback period, in years (rounded to two decimal places) is:

A) 2.89 years.
B) 3.50 years.
C) 3.89 years.
D) 4.27 years.
E) More than 5 years.