XYZ Corporation has a deferred compensation plan under which it allows certain employees to defer up to $40$ percent of their salary for five years. For purposes of this problem, ignore payroll taxes in your computations. $($Use Table $1.)($Round your intermediate calculations and final answers to the nearest whole dollar amount.$)$

a$.$ Assume XYZ has a marginal tax rate of $21$ percent for the foreseeable future and earns an after$-$tax rate of return of $12$ percent on its assets. Joel Johnson, XYZ$$s VP of finance, is attempting to determine what amount of deferred compensation XYZ should be willing to pay in five years that would make XYZ indifferent between paying the current salary of $$18,600$ and paying the deferred compensation. What amount of deferred compensation would accomplish this objective?