Table 2.15
An analyst notes the time that customer appointments end with a tax preparer that is assigned customers requiring only the 1040EZ form. The times indicated in the table represent the departure times of the first eight clients for one tax preparation specialist. The 1040EZ tax forms among the different customers are very similar. The tax preparer started the first return at 12:00pm.

-Based on Table 2.15, how long should it take the tax preparer to complete the 16th return of the day?
A) 16 minutes
B) 19 minutes
C) 21 minutes
D) 24 minutes

Question

Table 2.15
An analyst notes the time that customer appointments end with a tax preparer that is assigned customers requiring only the 1040EZ form. The times indicated in the table represent the departure times of the first eight clients for one tax preparation specialist. The 1040EZ tax forms among the different customers are very similar. The tax preparer started the first return at 12:00pm.
 
-Based on Table 2.15, how long should it take the tax preparer to complete the 16th return of the day?
A) 16 minutes 
B) 19 minutes 
C) 21 minutes 
D) 24 minutes

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To find how long it takes the tax preparer to complete the 16th return, we need to look for the time of the 15th return in the table. We see that the 15th return ended at 4:57pm, which is 4 hours and 57 minutes after the tax preparer started at 12:00pm. Therefore, the tax preparer took (4 hours and 57 minutes ÷ 15 returns) ≈ 21 minutes per return. To find how long it should take for the 16th return, we can simply add another 21 minutes, resulting in a total of 42 minutes. Therefore, the correct answer is C) 21 minutes.

Table 2.15 an Analyst Notes the Time That Customer Appointments End with End