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Argue either in favor or against the estate tax. Then, respond to at least two other students' posts in the following manner:

Support one student’s argument with additional information or examples.

Counter one student’s argument with information and/or examples.

Student 1 answer : Samantha

Samantha Caterina 5 posts

Re:Module 7 DQ 2

The estate tax is very tricky, it can be argued both ways, for and against. For arguments sake I would be in favor of the estate tax. Currently for 2017 the federal estate tax threshold is 5.49 million. This is only targeting the wealthiest of people. The estate tax will tax any amount of an estate above this. It makes up for a small portion of the total tax collected by the federal government but it is still a substantial amount. The estate tax can be different in each state therefore being taxed more if the threshold is smaller. It is argued that the successful decedent should not be penalized for being successful I would not agree this is true. They are no longer the owner of the estate and the money would just be passed to a beneficiary. The beneficiary then has the rights to do what they please with the money. This can cause the beneficiaries to become non-productive members of society. If the estate tax was taken out tax would have to be made up somewhere, therefore cause middle class taxpayers to pay more taxes. The estate tax does not target the average person only the wealthiest are affected by it. I do not think the estate tax needs to be taken out of order.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/10/06/guest-post-pros-and-cons-of-the-federal-estate-tax/#6e3c8eb975a6

Student answer Andrea:

Andrea Robinson-Parker 4 posts

Re:Module 7 DQ 2

The estate tax was once known as the death tax, there is a pun in there somewhere. Firstly, it is associated with the inheritance of a dead relative and secondly, it can be the death of small family businesses. I believe that this tax is essential for our country to survive. Bob Rywick, in his article, Pros and Cons of the Federal Estate Tax argues both sides of the coin. I agree with his pro stance and here is why:

Revenue from the estate tax will create around $200 billion revenue in the next several years. There has been a great increase in wealth in the recent past and this number may climb.

The estate tax will help to dilute the concentration of wealth. This concentration can be damaging to our free democratic society.

Many wealthy people donate large sums to charities each year to lower their tax bracket. If there was no estate tax, these donations would most likely drop off significantly.

Small business, (making less than $5,000,000) will not be affected. There are also rules set in place to protect farms regarding the valuation of farm land.

Less than 2/10 of 1% of the descendants dying each year will be affected by this tax, based on the current exemption amount.

Lastly, I personally believe that estate planning can alleviate some of these taxes. Estate taxes should not be confused with gift taxes. This is an option that can protect inheritances.

Student Answer

Lakisha Minniefield 3 posts

Re:Module 7 DQ 2

I am against “estate tax” and feel that when the property value goes up, it will increase my mortgage payment each year. I agree with Justin Haskins article regarding scrapping property taxes because as a property owner, charging fees for a specific service should be allowable. Also, property owners should be able to choose where the property taxes should be allocated especially when it comes down to our public education. I have two children who are autistic and in the past it was very difficult to find a school who had the staff to supply all of their educational special needs. Even though we live in the best neighbors that were very costly, the schools zone in the area had 2 out of 10 rating so I would have to transfer my children our of the district in order to get better services. Currently, my husband is getting ready for retirement out of the military and we have looked at all 50 states within the United States to see which state would give us the most exemptions when purchasing a home. The state we chose to move back to is Texas because of the no state property taxes. Property tax for the state of Texas brings in the most money of all taxes available to local government to pay for schools, roads, police and firemen, emergency response services, libraries, parks and other services provided by local government. The state also has a variety of partial or total (absolute) exemptions from appraised property values used to determine local property taxes. A partial exemption removes a percentage or a fixed dollar amount of a property's value from taxation. A total (absolute) exemption excludes the entire property from taxation. Since we will be on a fixed income, Texas property tax exemptions for disabled veterans was the best out of all 50 states. However, we will still have to look for a county with low property tax rate. Since I am already a disabled veteran, Texas has a property tax exempt chart for qualifying disabled veterans.

The exemption amount that a qualified disabled veteran receives depends on the veteran's disability rating from the branch of the armed service.

*The Texas Comptroller website lists all of the benefits for disabled veterans regarding property tax exemptions.

Even as a disabled veteran, I would still have to pay property tax but the exemption will only exempt the amount of the disability rating off the value of property. Disabled veterans who are 100% total and permanently disable will be exempt from paying all property taxes. Financially, my family will still have to find a home affordable in a safe neighborhood, public education is rated above 7 out of 10 and choose a county that property taxes are low.

Reference:

https://www.comptroller.texas.gov/taxes

Online degrees and courses are widely used by colleges and universities around the world. Some students feel that the online courses should be cheaper than in class courses as they should use less direct labor (faculty) and absorb less overhead (variable and fixed) and other variable costs such as student fees for activities should be eliminated since online students do not access those services. Provide your response to this issue with a cost accounting based opinion. Please be as detailed and lengthy as possible.

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48. Flour Beetles A model for describing the population of adult flour beetles involves evaluating the integral integrate (g(x))/x dx where g(x) is the per-unit-abundance growth rate for a popula- tion of size x. The researchers consider the simple case in which g(x) = a - bx for positive constants a and b. Find the integral in this case. Source: Ecology.

Starting from rest, a kg block slides down a rough incline. The coefficient of kinetic friction between the block and the incline is . Determine (a) the work done by the force of gravity, (b) the work done by the friction force between block and incline, and (c) the work done by the normal force.

My question is in refernce to the Harvard Business School Case by WILLIAM BRUNS, JULIE H. HERTENSTE, and KELVIN LIU: Danshui Plant No. 2

Prepare a flexible budget for 180,000 iPhone 4’s and calculate flexible budget variances using actual costs for August?

Danshui Plant No. 2

In August 2010, Wentao Chen, manager of Danshui Plant No. 2 in southern China, was anxious.

The plant was in the third month of a 12-month contract to assemble the Apple iPhone 4. The contract

called for Danshui to assemble 2.4 million iPhones in the period between June 1, 2010, and May 31,

2011, but now in the third month of the contract, production was only 180,000 units per month. Chen

called Jianye Ma, the plant controller, to request a summary of monthly operations for August as

soon after the end of the month as possible.

Danshui was a contract manufacturer that assembled electronic products for companies wishing

to save labor costs by locating in southern China where semiskilled labor was available for less than

one dollar an hour. Manufacturers like Danshui assembled parts in large plants using assembly line

techniques according to specifications of the international companies that contracted with them for

assembly and final testing. The largest contract manufacturer in China was Foxconn, a division of the

Hon Hai Group of Taiwan, with more than 800,000 workers in China alone and contracts to supply

Apple, Dell, and Hewlett Packard among others.

In expectation of high demand for the iPhone 4, Apple had contracted with Danshui to assemble

iPhones in Plant No. 2, which had been assembling computer hard drives on a contract that was

fulfilled at the end of May 2010. Although the assembly of hard drives was different than assembly of

iPhones, Danshui was confident that its workers would adapt to the new assembly tasks and that it

could hire and train the additional workers as needed. Chen’s job was to get Plant No. 2 up to speed

to fulfill the Apple contract and earn a profit for Danshui’s parent company, located in Hong Kong,

China.

Danshui Plant No. 2 was a profit center that was credited for each iPhone produced and shipped,

and charged for parts, labor, overhead, and shipping. Because the contract was for a year, an annual

budget was established soon after the iPhone contract was signed. This budget was divided by 12 to

establish equal monthly budgets to which actual revenues and expenses could be compared. All

budgeting and monthly reporting was done in U.S. dollars.

As the plant manager, Wentao Chen was responsible for control of all costs in his plant. Materials,

labor, and overhead were his responsibility. This was done to provide incentive to control all costs

whether caused by use waste, damage, theft, or inefficiencies.

The Apple iPhone 4

The iPhone 4 contained more than 100 components manufactured in plants located in Europe,

Asia, and the United States. For examples, Samsung supplied flash memories and application

processors, and Infineon (a German chip maker) supplied chips that send and receive phone calls and

data. A gyroscope, new to the iPhone 4, came from STMicroelectronics, based in Geneva, and a

touch-screen module came from Taiwan. Contract manufacturers assembled these parts in assembly

line plants that required each worker to focus on one or more tasks in a short period of time as each

phone moved along an assembly line toward completion. Estimates of the material cost of each

iPhone were around $180, assembly labor around 7% of total cost, and Apple’s profit margins about

60% of the selling price to customers. (See Exhibits 1 and 2 for estimated standard costs and

overhead budgets for the Danshui Plant No. 2.)

The assembly process at Danshui Plant No. 2 was almost entirely based on handwork by workers.

There were about 140 steps in the assembly process for an iPhone 4, and each phone was handled by

325 individuals during the five days required for assembly. Apple released the iPhone 4 on June 24,

2010 and more than 1.7 million units were sold in the first three days it was available. It was the

most successful product launch in Apple history. Apple fanatics around the world waited in long

lines to get their hands on the new phone.

The August Report

On September 2, Chen arrived at his office and found a report on August operations. (See Exhibit

3). The controller, Jianye Ma, had attached a note which Chen read with interest.

To: Wentao Chen

From: Jianye Ma and Bingqian Li

Date: September 1, 2010

Per your request we have compiled a preliminary report on August operations. At

first glance, revenue was below budget, material usage seems good, and labor costs were

above budget. In terms of plant profit, our budget was $100,000, but we actually had a

loss of $672,000. The main reason for the shortfall may be that we have been unable to

produce 200,000 iPhone 4 units in any of the three months we have been working on this

contract.

Our major obstacle is hiring enough qualified labor to get production up to 200,000

units per month. We cannot find people to hire, even though we have raised our factory

wages by almost 30% since July. (A friend at Foxconn in Shenzhen told Li that they

raised their starting pay by 35% since March, and they are building new plants elsewhere

where unemployment is high.)

In addition, we continue to have trouble with the Samsung flash memory installation.

Unless these are handled very carefully, they can be damaged by heat during installation.

One thousand flash memories were damaged in August and had to be replaced after

inspection. Samsung is aware of this problem and has begun to install a shield to prevent

some of the damage; however, as a result, Samsung raised the price of each unit $2.00

starting in mid June. Fortunately, Apple raised our revenue recovery by an equal

amount, so this should be neutral. We apparently had a favorable variance on flash

memories and other parts.

Li is uncomfortable with this report. She feels we should prepare a new budget

showing what we would have spent using standard costs and a production volume of

180,000 units. She says that the current report (Exhibit 3) distorts how we did, and that

until we prepare a “flexible budget” to compare our actual performance to that budget

we run the risk of misinterpreting our performance.

It will take Li a couple of days to prepare and evaluate a flexible budget because she is

working on a tax report that is due September 7. I will talk with you next week once we

receive the flexible budget from Li.

Required:

1. Using budget data, how many Apple iPhone 4’s would have to have been completed for

Danshui Plant No. 2 to break even?

2. Using budget data, what was the total expected cost per unit if all manufacturing and

shipping overhead (both variable and fixed) were allocated to planned production? What

was the actual cost per unit of production and shipping?

3. Prepare a flexible budget for 180,000 iPhone 4’s and calculate flexible budget variances using

actual costs for August.

4. Estimate material price and usage for flash memories, labor rate and usage (efficiency)

variances, and the overhead spending variance for August.

5. What are some strategies or decisions that Wentao Chen should consider in trying to solve

the problems with the Apple iPhone 4 contract in the next nine months? How would these

change the costs and profitability of Danshui Plant No. 2 and the iPhone 4 contract?

Case 9–1: Portable Phones Inc.​I NEED CASE STUDY REPORT, NOT SOLUTION MANUAL ANSWER COPIED:

Case 9–1: Portable Phones Inc.
Portable Phones Inc. manufactures and sells wireless telephones for residential and commercial use.
Portable Phones’ plant is organized by product line, with five phone assembly departments in total.
Each of these five phone assembly departments is responsible for the complete production of a particular
phone line, including manufacturing some parts, purchasing other parts, and assembling the unit.
Each of the five phone assembly department managers reports to a product-line manager who
has profit responsibility for his/her product. These five product-line managers have authority over
pricing, marketing, distribution, and production of their product. Each of the five phone assembly
departments is a cost center within its respective product-line profit center.
A key component of each phone is the circuit board(s) containing the integrated circuit chips.
Each phone assembly department purchases from outside vendors the basic boards and chips to be
attached to its board(s). The board department of the plant receives the boards and chips in kits from
each phone assembly department and assembles them into completed boards ready for assembly
into the phones. The board department (with a cost structure that is 80 percent fixed and 20 percent
variable) uses a single highly automated assembly line of robotic insertion machines to precisely
position each chip on the board and soldering machines to solder the chips onto the board. The board
department is a common resource for the plant; all five of the phone assembly departments use the
board department to assemble some or all of their boards. Since the board department has a single
assembly line, it can only assemble boards for one type of phone at a time. The assembly departments
have authority to seek the most competitive supplier for all their parts and services, including
circuit board assembly.
The board department’s assembly schedule is determined at the beginning of each month. The
five assembly departments request a time during the month when they plan delivery of particular kits
to the board department and specify the number of boards to be assembled. The manager of the board
department then takes these requests and tries to satisfy the assembly departments’ requests.
However, the board department manager finds that she has a peak load problem; the assembly
departments tend to want their boards assembled at the same time. The only way to satisfy these
requests is to work overtime shifts during these peak periods even though the board department has
excess capacity at other times of the month.
The total monthly costs of the board department (equipment depreciation, maintenance, direct
labor, supervision, and engineering support) are assigned to the phone assembly departments based
on an hourly rate. The board department’s total monthly costs are divided by the number of hours of
capacity in the month (e.g., if a particular month has 22 working days, this is equivalent to 352 hours
or 22 days × 2 shifts × 8 hours per shift) to arrive at a charge per hour. To give the phone assembly
departments incentives to have their kits (boards and chips) delivered to the board department in a
timely manner, the phone assembly department is charged for the time from when the last job (a
batch of boards assembled for a phone assembly department) was finished by the board department
until the time when the next job is finished. For example, suppose phone assembly department A’s
phones were finished at 9:00 a.m. and that department B delivered its kits at 1:00 p.m. and they were
completed at 7:00 p.m. the same day. Department B would be charged for 10 hours of the board
department’s costs even though the board department was idle for 4 of the 10 hours.
When first installed, the board department was expected to be operating at full capacity, two
shifts per day, six days per week. But due to increased competition and outsourcing of some models,
the board department is now operating at about 70 percent of the initial planned capacity.
Required:
a. If you manage a phone assembly department, when during the month would you tend to
request that your phone circuit boards be assembled by the board department (everything
else being held constant)? Explain why.
b. Identify various dysfunctional behaviors likely to occur among the phone assembly departments
and the board department.
c. What management changes would you suggest? In particular, what changes would you
make in the accounting system? Explain why each change should be made.

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Python offers numerous career opportunities with an average salary ranging from 8 to 12 per nm. It's no wonder why this language is so popular. In the upcoming video, we will first explore the history of Python. As the saying goes, "know your enemy before going to battle." We will be using the latest version of Python 3.x, as Python 2.x is now obsolete and no longer supported since January 2020. So, let's focus on the latest version and explore the many career opportunities that Python has to offer.

If you are already familiar with Python and its features and application areas, please feel free to take notes. In the next video, we will dive deeper into the topic.

I need for you to look at a couple of things and give me some guidance.

The workers in the assembly department are paid three different wages. Senior Assemblers, who have been with the company for more than five years, are paid $15 per hour. Experienced Assemblers, who have been with the company between one and five years, are paid $12 per hour. Novice Assemblers, who have been with the company less than one year, are paid $10 per hour. Assemblers from each class can perform the assembly tasks necessary to assemble a unit of XYZ but with more or less efficiency. I expect it to take four (4) direct labor hours to assemble each unit of XYZ.

When we developed the standard labor cost for the assembly department, we expected that 20% of the hours worked in the department would be performed by Senior Assemblers, 50% by Experienced Assemblers, and 30% by Novice Assemblers.

During May, 800 units of XYZ were produced using 3,360 hours of assembly labor. Because of an unforeseen expansion in the demand for XYZ, this was many more hours than expected. Therefore, Senior Assemblers worked 15% of the labor hours, Experienced Assemblers worked 45%, and Novice Assemblers worked 40%. Please address the following:

Determine the standard assembly labor cost per hour.

Determine the actual assembly labor cost per hour during May.

Compute the direct labor rate and efficiency variances for May. Don't forget to indicate whether those variances are unfavorable or favorable.

Based on the information given, what action, if any, would you expect me to take in response to the labor variances that you computed in part (3)?

Also, I am concerned about what’s going on in the cafeteria. The standard cost of mozzarella cheese that goes into our pizza is 1/2 pound per pizza @ $2.50 per pound. The standard price per pound is the price that we have paid for cheese for the last few months. We normally use about 2,000 pounds of mozzarella each month. In the past, mozzarella has been purchased 1,000 pounds at a time. For May, our purchasing agent was offered a 6% discount on the price per pound, to $2.35, if we purchased 2,000 pounds at a time. He chose to do so.

Compute the direct materials price variance and indicate favorable or unfavorable on the purchase of 2,000 pounds of cheese at $2.35 instead of the standard price of $2.50. NOTE: I am asking for just the PRICE variance.

In the past, about 1% of the cheese was thrown out due to spoilage. In May, because of the larger quantity purchased at once, 10% of the cheese spoiled and was thrown out. Did the favorable direct materials price variance that you computed in part (1) reflect a situation that was favorable from the standpoint of the company? Support your answer with computations. (Hint: think about the money lost due to the spoilage, both under the old way [1,000 pounds at a time times 2] or the new way [2,000 pounds at a time].)

During May, 1,800 pounds of cheese were used to produce 3,580 pizzas. Compute the May direct materials quantity variance and indicate favorable or unfavorable. NOTE: I am asking for just the QUANTITY variance.

What role does spoilage play in your answer to part (3)?

Southside Pizzeria wants to improve its ability to manage the ingredient costs associated with making and selling its pizzas. For the month of June, the company plans to make 1,000 pizzas. It has created a planning budget that includes a cost formula for mozzarella cheese of $2.40 per pizza. At the end of June, Southside actually sold 1,100 pizzas and the actual cost of the cheese that it used during the month was $2,632. Required: What is the mozzarella cheese activity variance for June? What is the mozzarella cheese spending variance for June? Assume that the company establishes a price standard of $0.30 per ounce for mozzarella cheese and a quantity standard of eight ounces of cheese per pizza. Also, assume that Southside actually used 9,400 ounces of cheese during the month to make 1,100 pizzas. What is the materials price variance for mozzarella cheese for June? What is the materials quantity variance for mozzarella cheese for June? What is the materials spending variance for mozzarella cheese for June?

How does the process of photosynthesis contribute to the production of oxygen in plants?