On January 1, 2016, Aspen Company acquired 80 percent of Birch Company's voting stock for $352,000. Birch reported a $380,000 book value and the fair value of the noncontrolling interest was $88,000 on that date. Then, on January 1, 2017, Birch acquired 80 percent of Cedar Company for $128,000 when Cedar had a $106,000 book value and the 20 percent noncontrolling interest was valued at $32,000. In each acquisition, the subsidiary's excess acquisition-date fair over book value was assigned to a trade name with a 30-year remaining life.

These companies report the following financial information. Investment income figures are not included.

	2016		2017		2018
Sales:
Aspen Company	$	512,500	$	557,500	$	827,500
Birch Company		239,000		360,750		523,200
Cedar Company	Not available			235,200		310,200
Expenses:
Aspen Company	$	400,000	$	437,500	$	522,500
Birch Company		177,000		286,000		435,000
Cedar Company	Not available			216,000		267,000
Dividends declared:
Aspen Company	$	18,000	$	45,000	$	55,000
Birch Company		8,000		20,000		20,000
Cedar Company	Not available			2,000		6,000

Assume that each of the following questions is independent:

1. If all companies use the equity method for internal reporting purposes, what is the December 31, 2017, balance in Aspen's Investment in Birch Company account?
2. What is the consolidated net income for this business combination for 2018?
3. What is the net income attributable to the noncontrolling interest in 2018?
4. Assume that Birch made intra-entity inventory transfers to Aspen that have resulted in the following intra-entity gross profits in inventory at the end of each year:

Date	Amount
12/31/16	$13,800
12/31/17	19,100
12/31/18	29,100

What is the accrual-based net income of Birch in 2017 and 2018, respectively?