Please answer C$.$ Answer to A is $524,936.$ Answer to B is $247,000.$ I couldn't solve for C$.$ On January $1,2022,$ Aspen Company acquired $80$ percent of Birch Company's voting stock for $\backslash (\backslash$$ $458,000\backslash ).$ Birch reported a $\backslash (\backslash$$ $437,500\backslash )$ book value, and the fair value of the noncontrolling interest was $\backslash (\backslash$$ $114,500\backslash )$ on that date. Then, on January $1,2023,$ Birch acquired $80$ percent of Cedar Company for $\backslash (\backslash$$ $216,000\backslash )$ when Cedar had a $\backslash (\backslash$$ $216,000\backslash )$ book value and the $20$ percent noncontrolling interest was valued at $\backslash (\backslash$$ $54,000\backslash ).$ 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.

Assume that each of the following questions is independent:

Required:

a$.$ If all companies use the equity method for internal reporting purposes, what is the December $31,2023,$ balance in Aspen's Investment in Birch Company account?

b$.$ What is the consolidated net income for this business combination for $2024?$

c$.$ What is the net income attributable to the noncontrolling interest in $2024?$

d$.$ 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:

What is the accrual$-$based net income of Birch in $2023$ and $2024,$ respectively?