Splish, a company that makes new furniture that has a worn look to it, has been struggling to keep up with its competitors. But the intern Igor has an idea: make some up-front investments in order to get customers' attention and then reap the rewards of a better product with a higher selling price. Since he's been studying capital budgeting at school, he's confident that he can present his idea and impress his boss with his insight and technical expertise. Here's the plan: Invest $146,000 in updated equipment and inventory management technology to support the production of zero-defect products, where custom features can be reasonably added to any order on demand. The new equipment and technology will have a useful life of 8 years, after which the assets will have no market value. The assets will generate additional net cash inflows due to higher gross margins of $59,900 per year for the life of the assets, less additional operating cash outflows of $29,200 per year for persistent marketing efforts. Before pulling his proposal together, Igor finds out that the company is typically subject to a 24% tax rate. Further, the company has alternative uses for its cash that would easily earn a 6% rate of return. Click here to view the factor table