Question

Mary Graham worked as a real estate agent for Piedmont Properties for 15 years. Her annual income is approximately $100,000 per year. Mary is considering estab- lishing her own real estate agency. She expects to generate revenues during the first year of $2 million. Salaries paid to her employees are expected to total $1.5 million. Operating expenses (i.e., rent, supplies, utility services) are expected to total $250,000. To begin the business, Mary must borrow $500,000 from her bank at an interest rate of 15 percent. Equipment will cost Mary $50,000. At the end of one year, the value of this equipment will be $30,000, even though the depreciation expense for tax purposes is only $5,000 during the first year.

a) Determine the (pre-tax) accounting profit for this venture.
b) Determine the (pre-tax) economic profit for this venture.
c) Which of the costs for this firm are explicit and which are implicit?

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

The computation is shown below:

a. The pre tax accounting profit is

= Revenue - operating expenses - salaries - depreciation - interest on loan

= $2,000,000 - $250,000 - $1,500,000 - $5,000 - ($500,000 × 15%)

= $2,000,000 - $250,000 - $1,500,000 - $5,000 - $75,000

= $170,000

b. The pre tax economic profit is

= Revenue - operating expenses - salaries - foregone income - actual depreciation - interest on loan

= $2,000,000 - $250,000 - $1,500,000 - $100,000 - $20,000 - $75,000

= $55,000

The actual depreciation is

= $50,000 - $30,000

= $20,000

c. The explicit cost is the cost which includes wages & salaries, operating expense, depreciation expenses etc while the implicit cost includes the opportunity cost and annual depreciation cost