A company is considering the purchase of a new production machine and is not sure whether the project fulfills its investment objective. The company requires that all investments must have a positive net present value (NPV). The machine costs \($100,000\) and will be depreciated for tax purposes on a straight-line basis over its useful life of five years. The machine has a \($0\) salvage value. The project will generate \($30,000\) of pretax operating cash inflow annually. The company has a 25% effective income tax rate and uses a 10% discount rate for investment projects. Which of the following represents the NPV of the project?

a. \($13,724\)

b. \($4,246\)

c. \($(14,707)\)

d. \($(33,661)\)