The Randolph Teweles Company (RTC) has decided to acquire a new truck. One alternative is to lease the truck on a 4-year guideline contract for a lease payment of $10,000 per year, with payments to be made at the beginning of each year. The lease would include maintenance. Alternatively, RTC could purchase the truck outright for $40,000, financing the purchase by a bank loan for the net purchase price and amortizing the loan over a 4-year period at an interest rate of 10% per year. Under the borrow-to-purchase arrangement, RTC would have to maintain the truck at a cost of $1,000 per year, payable at year end. The truck falls into the MACRS 3-year class. It has a residual value of $10,000, which is the expected market value after 4 years, when RTC plans to replace the truck irrespective of whether it leases or buys. RTC has a marginal federal-plus-state tax rate of 40%.
a. What is RTC’s PV cost of leasing?
b. What is RTC’s PV cost of owning? Should the truck be leased or purchased?
c. The appropriate discount rate for use in the analysis is the firm’s after-tax cost of debt. Why?
d. The residual value is the least certain cash flow in the analysis. How might RTC incorporate differential riskness of this cash flow into the analysis?