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On January 30, 2016, a suit was filed against Frazier Corporation under the Environmental Protection Act. On August 6, 2017, Frazier Corporation agreed to settle the action and pay $920,000 in damages to certain current and former employees. How should this settlement be reported in the 2017 financial statements? Discuss.

Short Answer

Expert verified

The settlement of the lawsuit would be considered a non-operational expense.

Step by step solution

01

Meaning of Financial statements 

Financial statements are the progress reportsof the business entities that are prepared to ascertain the overallgrowth of the business. Such reports are prepared annually and communicated to various concerned users.

02

Treatment of lawsuit

According to the situation mentioned above, the company should create a provision for the lawsuit in the books on December 31, 2016, but the company has not done the same.

At present, the company must show the settlement amount as an expense in the income statement’s non-operating expense.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Question: Presented below is a combined single-step income and retained earnings statement for Nerwin Company for 2017.

(000 omitted)

Net sales revenue \(640,000

Costs and expenses

Cost of goods sold \)500,000

Selling, general, and administrative expenses 66,000

Other, net 17,000

583,000

Income before income tax 57,000

Income tax 19,400

Net income 37,600

Retained earnings at beginning of period, as previously reported 141,000

Adjustment required for correction of error (7,000)

Retained earnings at beginning of period, as restated 134,000

Dividends on common stock (12,200)

Retained earnings at end of period \(159,400

Additional facts are as follows.

1. “Selling, general, and administrative expenses” for 2017 included a charge of \)8,500,000 that was usual but infrequently occurring.

2. “Other, net” for 2017 included a loss on sale of equipment of $6,000,000.

3. “Adjustment required for correction of an error” was a result of a change in estimate (useful life of certain assets reduced to 8 years and a catch-up adjustment made).

4. Nerwin Company disclosed earnings per common share for net income in the notes to the financial statements.

Instructions

Determine from these additional facts whether the presentation of the facts in the Nerwin Company income and retained earnings statement is appropriate. If the presentation is not appropriate, describe the appropriate presentation and discuss its theoretical rationale. (Do not prepare a revised statement.)

Charlie Brown, the controller for Kelly Corporation, is preparing the company’s income statement at year-end. He notes that the company lost a considerable sum on the sale of some equipment it had decided to replace. Since the company has sold equipment routinely in the past, Brown knows the losses cannot be reported as an unusual item. He also does not want to highlight it as a material loss since he feels that will reflect poorly on him and the company. He reasons that if the company had recorded more depreciation during the assets’ lives, the losses would not be so great. Since depreciation is included among the company’s operating expenses, he wants to report the losses along with the company’s expenses, where he hopes it will not be noticed.

Instructions

  1. What are the ethical issues involved?
  2. What should Brown do?

Vandross Company has recorded bad debt expense in the past at a rate of 1½% of accounts receivable, based on an aging analysis. In 2017, Vandross decided to increase its estimate to 2%. If the new rate had been used in prior years, cumulative bad debt expense would have been \(380,000 instead of \)285,000. In 2017, bad debt expense will be \(120,000 instead of \)90,000. If Vandross’s tax rate is 30%, what amount should it report as the cumulative effect of changing the estimated bad debt rate?

Why should caution be exercised in the use of the net income figure derived in an income statement? What are the objectives of generally accepted accounting principles in their application to the income statement?

Counting Crows Inc. provided the following information for the year 2017.

Retained earnings, January 1, 2017 $600,000

Administrative expenses 240,000

Selling expenses 300,000

Sales revenue 1,900,000

Cash dividends declared 80,000

Cost of goods sold 850,000

Loss on discontinued operations 110,000

Rent revenue 102,700

17,000

Income tax applicable to continuing operations 187,000

Income tax benefit applicable to loss

on discontinued operations 60,500

Income tax applicable to unrealized holding

gain on available-for-sale securities 2,000

Accounting

Prepare

(a) a single-step income statement for 2017,

(b) a retained earnings statement for 2017, and

(c) a statement of comprehensive income using the two statement format. The shares outstanding during 2017 were 100,000.

Analysis

Explain how a multiple-step income statement format can provide useful information to a financial statement user.

Principles

In a recent meeting with its auditor, Counting Crows’ management argued that the company should be able to prepare a pro forma income statement with some one-time administrative expenses reported similar to discontinued operations. Is such reporting consistent with the qualitative characteristics of accounting information as discussed in the conceptual framework? Explain.

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