The ADT Corporation provides monitored electronic security, interactive home and business automation, and related monitoring services in the United States and Canada. Clients typically lease the monitoring system and ADT retains ownership of the security system. The company reports:

Selected information from ADT’s 2015 annual report is presented below:

Required
1. How much did ADT record as the expenditure of cash for deferred subscriber acquisition costs in 2015?
2. How much would the company’s total assets be at September 25, 2015, if the company had always expensed its subscriber acquisition costs?
3. If ADT had always expensed its expenditures for subscriber acquisition costs in its financial statements to shareholders, would the cash flow from operations be higher, the same, or lower? Why?
4. What would the company’s income before income taxes be in 2015 if ADT had always expensed its expenditures for subscriber acquisition costs?

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"For transactions in which the Company retains ownership of the security system non-refundable fees (referred to as deferred subscriber acquisition revenue) received in connection with the initiation of a moni- toring contract are deferred and amortized over the estimated life of the customer relationship."