Question

Jackson has the choice to invest in city of Mitchell bonds or Sundial, Inc. corporate bonds that pay 5.6 percent interest. Jackson is a single taxpayer who earns $47,500 annually. Assume that the city of Mitchell bonds and the Sundial, Inc. bonds have similar risk. What interest rate would the city of Mitchell have to pay in order to make Jackson indifferent between investing in the city of Mitchell and the Sundial, Inc. bonds for 2019

Answer 1

Answer: 4.37%

Explanation:

As interest is tax deductible, the Sundial Interest needs to be adjusted for tax to find out the true return.

Jackson as a single tax payer earning $47,500 in 2019 has a tax rate of 22% according to the IRS Tax bracket for that year.

That means that the interest that true interest that Sundial is offering him is,

= 5.6 * ( 1 - tax rate)

= 5.6 * ( 1 - 0.22)

= 5.6 * 0.78

= 0.04368

= 4.37%

To make Jackson indifferent with the same amount of risk, the city of Mitchell would have to offer him the same interest that Sundial is offering net of tax which is 4.37%.