Variable and absorption costing Whirlpool corporation had the following abbreviated income statement for a recent year: In Millions Net Sales: 17,099 Cost of Goods sold: 14,713 Selling administrative, and other exp: 1,544 Total exp: 16,257 Income from operations: 842 assume that there were 3,680 million fixed manufacturing costs and 890 million fixed selling, administrative, and other costs for the year. the finished goods inventories at the beginning and end of the year from the balance sheet were as follows: Jan 1: 2,591 Million Dec. 31: 2,197 Million Assume that 30% of the beginning and ending inventory consists of fixed costs. assume work in process and materials inventory were unchanged during the period. a. Prepare an income statement according to the variable costing concept for whirlpool corp. for the recent year. b. explain the difference between the amount of income from operations reported under the absorption costing and variable costing concepts.