Jefferson Enterprises has the following income statement data available for 2011:
Sales revenue ........... $737,200
Operating expenses ........243,700
Interest expense .......... 39,500
Income tax rate .......... 34%
Jefferson uses a perpetual inventory accounting system and the average cost method. Jefferson is considering adopting the FIFO or LIFO method for costing inventory. Jefferson€™s accountant prepared the following data:

Required:
1. Compute income before taxes, income taxes expense, and net income for each of the three inventory costing methods (rounded to the nearest dollar).
2. Why are the cost of goods sold and ending inventory amounts different for each of the three methods? What do these amounts tell us about the purchase price of inventory during the year?
3. Which method produces the most realistic amount for net income? For inventory? Explain your answer.

If Average Cost Used IF FIFO Used IF LIFO Used Ending inventory Cost of goods sold 61,850 403,150 80,200 43,400 421,600 384,800