Question

A study has been conducted to determine if one of the departments in MSU Company should be discontinued. The contribution margin in the department is $50,000 per year. Fixed expenses charged to the department are $65,000 per year. It is estimated that $40,000 of these fixed expenses could be eliminated if the department is discontinued. These data indicate that if the department is discontinued, MSU's overall net operating income would:

a. decrease by $25,000 per year.

b. increase by $25,000 per year.

c. decrease by $10,000 per year.

d. increase by $10,000 per year.

Answer 1

c. decrease by $10,000 per year.

Step-by-step explanation:

The contributing margin of a business is sales revenue less the variable cost to produce the product

Contributing margin refers to the profit that is free to be used by the business to pay fixed costs and reserve as net profit.

In this scenario if the department is discounted the fixed expense will reduce by $40,000

This implies that the net income will increase by $40,000 if the department is discontinued.

If the department is discontinued income from the department will reduce by $50,000. That is -$50,000

Net income= -50,000 + 40,000= -$10,000