Paterson Company,* a U.S.-based company, manufactures and sells electronic components worldwide. Virtually all its manufacturing takes place in the United States. The company has marketing divisions throughout Europe, including France. Debbie Kishimoto, manager of this division, was hired from a competitor 3 years ago. Debbie, recently informed of a price increase in one of the major product lines, requested a meeting with Jeff Phillips, marketing vice president. Their conversation follows.
Debbie: “Jeff, I simply don’t understand why the price of our main product has increased from $5.00 to $5.50 per unit. We negotiated an agreement earlier in the year with our manufacturing division in Philadelphia for a price of $5.00 for the entire year. I called the manager of that division. He said that the original price was still acceptable—that the increase was a directive from headquarters. That’s why I wanted to meet with you. I need some explanations. When I was hired, I was told that pricing decisions were made by the divisions. This directive interferes with this decentralized philosophy and will lower my division’s profits. Given current market conditions, there is no way we can pass on the cost increase. Profits for my division will drop at least $600,000 if this price is maintained. I think a midyear increase of this magnitude is unfair to my division.”
Jeff: “Under normal operating conditions, headquarters would not interfere with divisional decisions. But as a company, we are having some problems. What you just told me is exactly why the price of your product has been increased. We want the profits of all our European marketing divisions to drop.”
Debbie: “What do you mean that you want the profits to drop? That doesn’t make any sense. Aren’t we in business to make money?”
Jeff: “Debbie, what you lack is corporate perspective. We are in business to make money, and that’s why we want European profits to decrease. Our U.S. divisions are not doing well this year. Projections show significant losses. At the same time, projections for European operations show good profitability. By increasing the cost of key products transferred to Europe—to your division, for example—we increase revenues and profits in the United States. By decreasing your profits, we avoid paying taxes in France. With losses on other U.S. operations to offset the corresponding increase in domestic profits, we avoid paying taxes in the United States as well. The net effect is a much-needed increase in our cash flow. Besides, you know how hard it is in some of these European countries to transfer out capital. This is a clean way of doing it.”
Debbie: “I’m not so sure that it’s clean. I can’t imagine the tax laws permitting this type of scheme. There is another problem, too. You know that the company’s bonus plans are tied to a division’s profits. This plan could cost all of the European managers a lot of money.”
Jeff: “Debbie, you have no reason to worry about the effect on your bonus—or on our evaluation of your performance. Corporate management has already taken steps to ensure no loss of compensation. The plan is to compute what income would have been if the old price had prevailed and base bonuses on that figure. I’ll meet with the other divisional managers and explain the situation to them as well.”
Debbie: “The bonus adjustment seems fair, although I wonder if the reasons for the drop in profits will be remembered in a couple of years when I’m being considered for promotion. Anyway, I still have some strong ethical concerns about this. How does this scheme relate to the tax laws?”
Jeff: “We will be in technical compliance with the tax laws. In the United States, Section 482 of the Internal Revenue Code governs this type of transaction. The key to this law, as well as most European laws, is evidence of an arm’s-length price. Since you’re a distributor, we can use the resale price method to determine such a price. Essentially, the arm’s-length price for the transferred good is backed into by starting with the price at which you sell the product and then adjusting that price for the markup and other legitimate differences, such as tariffs and transportation.”
Debbie: “If I were a French tax auditor, I would wonder why the markup dropped from last year to this year. Are we being good citizens and meeting the fiscal responsibilities imposed on us by each country in which we operate?”
Jeff: “Well, a French tax auditor might wonder about the drop in markup. But, the markup is still within reason, and we can make a good argument for increased costs. In fact, we’ve already instructed the managers of our manufacturing divisions to legitimately reassign as many costs as they can to the European product lines. So far, they have been very successful. I think our records will support the increase that you are receiving. You really do not need to be concerned with the tax authorities. Our tax department assures me that this has been carefully researched—it’s unlikely that a tax audit will create any difficulties. It’ll all be legal and above board. We’ve done this several times in the past with total success.”
Required:
- 1. Do you think that the tax-minimization scheme described to Debbie Kishimoto is in harmony with the ethical behavior that should be displayed by top corporate executives? Why or why not? What would you do if you were Debbie?
- 2. Apparently, the tax department of Paterson Company has been strongly involved in developing the tax-minimization scheme. Assume that the accountants responsible for the decision are CMAs and members of the IMA, subject to the IMA standards of ethical conduct. Review the IMA standards for ethical conduct in Chapter 1. Are any of these standards being violated by the accountants in Paterson’s tax department? If so, identify them. What should these tax accountants do if requested to develop a questionable taxminimization scheme?
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Managerial Accounting: The Cornerstone of Business Decision-Making
- Paul Golding and his wife, Nancy, established Crunchy Chips in 1938. Over the past 60 years, the company has established distribution channels in 11 western states, with production facilities in Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado. In 1980, Pauls son, Edward, took control of the business. By 2017, it was clear that the companys plants needed to gain better control over production costs to stay competitive. Edward hired a consultant to install a standard costing system. To help the consultant establish the necessary standards, Edward sent her the following memo: The manufacturing process for potato chips begins when the potatoes are placed into a large vat in which they are automatically washed. After washing, the potatoes flow directly to an automatic peeler. The peeled potatoes then pass by inspectors, who manually cut out deep eyes or other blemishes. After inspection, the potatoes are automatically sliced and dropped into the cooking oil. The frying process is closely monitored by an employee. After the chips are cooked, they pass under a salting device and then pass by more inspectors, who sort out the unacceptable finished chips (those that are discolored or too small). The chips then continue on the conveyor belt to a bagging machine that bags them in 1-pound bags. After bagging, the bags are placed in a box and shipped. The box holds 15 bags. The raw potato pieces (eyes and blemishes), peelings, and rejected finished chips are sold to animal feed producers for 0.16 per pound. The company uses this revenue to reduce the cost of potatoes. We would like this reflected in the price standard relating to potatoes. Crunchy Chips purchases high-quality potatoes at a cost of 0.245 per pound. Each potato averages 4.25 ounces. Under efficient operating conditions, it takes four potatoes to produce one 16-ounce bag of plain chips. Although we label bags as containing 16 ounces, we actually place 16.3 ounces in each bag. We plan to continue this policy to ensure customer satisfaction. In addition to potatoes, other raw materials are the cooking oil, salt, bags, and boxes. Cooking oil costs 0.04 per ounce, and we use 3.3 ounces of oil per bag of chips. The cost of salt is so small that we add it to overhead. Bags cost 0.11 each and boxes 0.52 each. Our plant produces 8.8 million bags of chips per year. A recent engineering study revealed that we would need the following direct labor hours to produce this quantity if our plant operates at peak efficiency: Im not sure that we can achieve the level of efficiency advocated by the study. In my opinion, the plant is operating efficiently for the level of output indicated if the hours allowed are about 10% higher. The hourly labor rates agreed upon with the union are: Overhead is applied on the basis of direct labor dollars. We have found that variable overhead averages about 116% of our direct labor cost. Our fixed overhead is budgeted at 1,135,216 for the coming year. Required: 1. Discuss the benefits of a standard costing system for Crunchy Chips. 2. Discuss the presidents concern about using the result of the engineering study to set the labor standards. What standard would you recommend? 3. Form a group with two or three other students. Develop a standard cost sheet for Crunchy Chips plain potato chips. Round all computations to four decimal places. 4. Suppose that the level of production was 8.8 million bags of potato chips for the year as planned. If 9.5 million pounds of potatoes were used, compute the materials usage variance for potatoes.arrow_forwardPosavek is a wholesale supplier of building supplies building contractors, hardware stores, and home-improvement centers in the Boston metropolitan area. Over the years, Posavek has expanded its operations to serve customers across the nation and now employs over 200 people as technical representatives, buyers, warehouse workers, and sales and office staff. Most recently, Posavek has experienced fierce competition from the large online discount stores. In addition, the company is suffering from operational inefficiencies related to its archaic information system. Posavek revenue cycle procedures are described in the following paragraphs. Revenue Cycle Posaveks sales department representatives receive orders via traditional mail, e-mail, telephone, and the occasional walk-in customer. Because Posavek is a wholesaler, the vast majority of its business is conducted on a credit basis. The process begins in the sales department, where the sales clerk enters the customers order into the centralized computer sales order system. The computer and file server are housed in Posaveks small data processing department. If the customer has done business with Posavek in the past, his or her data are already on file. If the customer is a first-time buyer, however, the clerk creates a new record in the customer account file. The system then creates a record of the transaction in the open sales order file. When the order is entered, an electronic copy of it is sent to the customers e-mail address as confirmation. A clerk in the warehouse department periodically reviews the open sales order file from a terminal and prints two copies of a stock release document for each new sale, which he uses to pick the items sold from the shelves. The warehouse clerk sends one copy of the stock release to the sales department and the second copy, along with the goods, to the shipping department. The warehouse clerk then updates the inventory subsidiary file to reflect the items and quantities shipped. Upon receipt of the stock release document, the sales clerk accesses the open sales order file from a terminal, closes the sales order, and files the stock release document in the sales department. The sales order system automatically posts these transactions to the sales, inventory control, and cost-of-goods-sold accounts in the general ledger file. Upon receipt of the goods and the stock release, the shipping department clerk prepares the goods for shipment to the customer. The clerk prepares three copies of the bill of lading. Two of these go with the goods to the carrier and the third, along with the stock release document, is filed in the shipping department. The billing department clerk reviews the closed sales orders from a terminal and prepares two copies of the sales invoice. One copy is mailed to the customer, and the other is filed in the billing department. The clerk then creates a new record in the accounts receivable subsidiary file. The sales order system automatically updates the accounts receivable control account in the general ledger file. CASH RECEIPTS PROCEDURES Mail room clerks open customer cash receipts, reviews the check and remittance advices for completeness, and prepares two copies of a remittance list. One copy is sent with the checks to the cash receipts department. The second copy of the remittance advices are sent to the billing department. When the cash receipts clerk receives the checks and remittance list, he verifies the checks received against those on the remittance list and signs the checks For Deposit Only. Once the checks are endorsed, he records the receipts in the cash receipts journal from his terminal. The clerk then fills out a deposit slip and deposits the checks in the bank. Upon receipt of the remittances, the billing department clerk records the amounts in the accounts receivable subsidiary ledger from the department terminal. The system automatically updates the AR control account in the general ledger Posavek has hired your public accounting firm to review its sales order procedures for internal control compliance and to make recommendations for changes. Required a. Create a data flow diagram of the current system. b. Create a system flowchart of the existing system. c. Analyze the physical internal control weaknesses in the system. d. (Optional) Prepare a system flowchart of a redesigned computer-based system that resolves the control weaknesses that you identified. Explain your solution.arrow_forwardWheels, Inc. is a manufacturer of bicycles sold through retail bicycle shops in the southeastern United States. The company has two salespeople that do more than just sell the products—they manage relationships with the bicycle shops to enable them to better meet consumers’ needs. The company’s sales reps visit the shops several times per year, often for hours at a time. The owner of Wheels is considering expanding to the rest of the country and would like to have distribution through 1,000 bicycle shops. To do so, however, the company would have to hire more salespeople. Each salesperson earns $40,000 plus 2 percent commission on all sales. Another alternative is to use the services of sales agents instead of its own sales force. Sales agents would be paid 5 percent of sales. Refer to Appendix 2 to answer this question. Determine the number of salespeople Wheels needs if it has 1,000 bicycle shop accounts that need to be called on four times per year. Each sales call lasts…arrow_forward
- Wheels Inc. is a manufacturer of bicycles sold through retail bicycle shops in the southeastern United States. The company has two sales people that do more than just sell the product-they manage relationships with the bicycle shops to enable them to better meet the consumers' needs. The company's sales reps visits the shop several times per year, often for hours at a time. The owner of wheels is considering expanding to the rest of the country and would like to have distribution through 1000 bicycle shops. To do so, Howe the company would have to hire more salespeople. Each sales person earn $40,000 plus 2 percent commission on all sales. Another alternative is to use the services of sales agents instead of its own sales force. Sales agents would be paid 5 percent of sales. a) determine the number of sales people Wheels need if it has 1000 bicycle shop accounts that need to be called on four time per year. Each sales call lasts approximately 2.5 hours, and each sales rep has…arrow_forwardMarketing: Wheels, Inc. manufactures bicycles sold through retail bicycle shops in the southeastern United States. The company has two salespeople that do more than just sell the products dash– they manage relationships with the bicycle shops to enable them to better meet consumers' needs. The company's sales reps visit the shops several times per year, often for hours at a time. The owner of Wheels is considering expanding to the rest of the country and would like to have distribution through 600 bicycle shops. To do so, however, the company would have to hire more salespeople. Each salesperson earns $40,000 plus 2 percent commission on all sales annually. Another alternative is to use the services of sales agents instead of its own sales force. Sales agents would be paid 5 percent of sales. Determine the number of salespeople Wheels needs if it has 600 bicycle shop accounts that need to be called on five times per year. Each sales call lasts approximately 3 hours and each sales…arrow_forwardStarDucks, Inc (SDUX) is an American coffee company with more than 10,000 coffeehouses operating in the United States. Unlike many of its major competitors, it remained focused only on the production and sale of coffee drinks so far, rather than diversifying into other similar food and beverage lines. Recently, to respond to increasing demands from its customer regarding new products, and to boost the company’s growth, the executive staff has been seriously thinking about entering into a different business line “SDUX Gelato” to realize new growth opportunities. An initial forecasting effort has been done to project the initial investment and subsequent cash flows for the next 5 years: Year 012345 Cash Flow ($000s) -1,750,000 -150,000 420,000 550,000 200,000 125,000 After the initial 5 years, SDUX believes the market will continue in perpetuity: however, given that the segment will reach maturity, it would very likely be a zero growth business. The company uses NPV for capital budgeting…arrow_forward
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