An injection moulding machine was purchased 2 years ago. The machine has been depreciated on a straight-line basis with $500 salvage value, and it has 6 years of remaining life. Its current book value is $2,600, and it can be sold for $3,000 at this time.
Assume, for ease of calculation, that the annual depreciation expense is $350 per year. The firm is offered a replacement machine which has a cost of $8,000 an estimated useful life of 6 years, and an estimated salvage value of $800. This machine falls into the MACRS 5-year class (20%, 32%, 19%, 12%, 12%, 5%).
The replacement machine would permit an output expansion, so sales would rise by $1,000 per year; even so, the new machine would cause operating expenses to decline by $1,500 per year. The machine would require that inventories be increased by $2,000 but accounts payable would simultaneously increase by $500. The firm’s marginal federal-plus-state tax rate is 40 percent, and its cost of capital is 15 percent. Should it replace the old machine? (In your calculations use zero decimal spaces/round to the whole numbers).