The internal rate of return is the: A. rate of return needed for a project to payback within the allotted time period. B. rate computed by discounting the cash inflows and dividing by the initial cost. C. rate of return required by a firm's management for a particular project. D. discount rate that causes the net present value of a project to equal zero. E. rate computed by dividing the first year's cash inflows by the initial cost of a project.