i ntermediate a ccounting chapter 10 property, plant, and equipment: acquisition and subsequent...

INTERMEDIATE ACCOUNTINGChapter 10

Property, Plant, and Equipment: Acquisition and Subsequent Investments

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

INTERMEDIATE ACCOUNTING

What are the Characteristics of Property, Plant, And Equipment? (Slide 1 of 3)

• Property, plant, and equipment (alternatively called plant assets, fixed assets, or operational assets) are the tangible noncurrent assets that a company uses in the normal operations of its business.

• To be included in this category, an asset must have three characteristics:• The asset must be held for use in operations and not for

investment. This characteristic does not imply that the asset must be continuously used. For example, the furniture and fixtures in coffee shops are included in its property, plant, and equipment. However, the companies that sold these items to the coffee shop would categorize them as inventory.

• The asset must have an expected life of more than one year. The asset represents future economic benefits, or service potential, that the company will receive over the life of the asset as it is used in the normal course of business.

• The asset must be tangible in nature. There must be a physical substance that can be seen and touched.



• A company initially records property, plant, and equipment assets at acquisition, or historical, cost.

• Because the asset is expected to provide economic benefits to the company over a period of more than one year, the company allocates the cost of the asset as an expense to each period in which the asset is used and the company receives benefits.

• The use of historical cost as the basis for reporting property, plant, and equipment provides several advantages:• The historical cost is equal to the fair value at the date of

acquisition.• The cost provides a verifiable valuation of the asset.• Gains from holding the asset are recognized only when

realized through a sale transaction.



• Because depreciation is a process of cost allocation rather than of valuation, the net book value of an asset (cost minus accumulated depreciation) does not necessarily reflect the economic value of the asset.

• GAAP requires that a company report its property, plant, and equipment at its depreciated cost (cost minus accumulated depreciation).

• However, when the asset becomes impaired such that its fair value is less than its book value, the asset must be written down to fair value.

• Under U.S. GAAP, companies are not allowed to write up an asset if its fair value is above its historical cost. (IFRS allows this.)© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in

whole or in part.

• The major types of assets that a company includes in the category of property, plant, and equipment are land, buildings, equipment, and leasehold improvements. • Natural resources, such as timberlands, oil deposits, and

mineral deposits, are also included as property, plant, and equipment.

• The acquisition cost of property, plant, and equipment includes all costs necessary to obtain the benefits to be derived from the asset.• contract price; minus discounts taken; plus freight, assembly,

installation, testing costs and retirement obligation

• GAAP allows a company to either • (1) include discounts not taken as part of the cost of the asset

or • (2) subtract discounts not taken from the cost of the asset and

report them as an expense. • Most companies prefer the second approach.


How Do We Account for the Acquisition of Property, Plant And Equipment?

• The recorded cost of land includes the following:• contract price

• costs of closing the transaction and obtaining title, including commissions, options, legal fees, title search, insurance, and past due taxes

• costs of surveys

• costs of preparing the land for its particular use, such as clearing, grading, and removing old buildings (net of any proceeds from salvage) when such improvements have an indefinite life

• government assessments for streets, sidewalks, sewers, and water lines for which the government is responsible for the upkeep and are permanent in nature

• Because land has an indefinite economic life and its residual value is unlikely to be less than its acquisition cost, land is not depreciated.

• If land is not currently used in operations, but purchased for future use, it is more representationally faithful to classify it as an investment.


Land

• A company will often make expenditures that improve the usefulness of the property, such as landscaping, paving, and fencing. • Because these improvements have a limited economic

life, a company should record the costs of these improvements in a Land Improvements account and depreciate them over their economic lives.

• The recorded cost of buildings includes the following:• contract price• costs of remodeling and reconditioning• costs of excavation for the specific building• architectural costs and the costs of building permits• capitalized interest costs © 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in

whole or in part.

Land Improvements and Buildings

• Equipment is a broad term that includes machinery, furniture and fixtures, office equipment, vehicles, and similar assets.

• The recorded cost of equipment includes the following:• purchase price, minus any discounts taken, plus sales

tax• transportation costs, plus any insurance costs on the

equipment while in transit• installation or assembly costs• initial testing costs

• Therefore, if the cost is necessary to obtain the equipment and prepare it for use, it should be capitalized as property, plant, and equipment.© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in

whole or in part.

Equipment

• Improvements made by the lessee to leased property that, unless specifically exempted in the lease agreement, revert to the lessor at the end of the lease

• Therefore, a lessee capitalizes the cost of a leasehold improvement, such as the interior design of a retail store, and depreciates the cost over its economic life or the life of the lease, whichever is shorter.


Leasehold Improvements

• The acquisition of some operational assets create an asset retirement obligation—a legal obligation related to the retirement of the asset.

• In some instances, asset retirement obligations arise from environmental responsibilities and laws, such as the requirement to decommission nuclear power plants at the end of their useful lives or to reclaim the land after mining or drilling operations have concluded.

• In other settings, asset retirement obligations can arise from legal arrangements related to the use of an asset.


Asset Retirement Obligations

• A company may acquire several fixed assets for a single lump-sum purchase price. To account for the assets on an individual basis, the total purchase price must be allocated among the individual assets.

• A company allocates the acquisition price in a lump-sum purchase based on the relative fair values of the individual assets. If only part of the purchase price can be identified with a specific asset, the specifically identified cost should be assigned to that asset with the remainder allocated among the remaining assets based on their relative fair values.

• Evidence of fair value can be obtained from independent sources such as appraisals, assessed values for property taxes, or other reasonably accurate approximations of the assets’ market values.


Lump-Sum Purchase

• When a company acquires property, plant, and equipment in exchange for making future payments, such as by issuing notes or bonds or assuming a mortgage, it records the asset at its fair value or the fair value of the liability on the date of the transaction, whichever is more clearly evident.

• Note that GAAP’s fair value hierarchy allows a company to measure fair value as the present value of the future payments when observable market values are not available.


Deferred (Future) Payments

• When a company acquires property, plant, and equipment by issuing securities such as common stock or preferred stock, the company records the exchange at the fair value of the asset acquired or of the stock issued, whichever is more clearly evident and representationally faithful.

• Normally the two fair value measures would be very similar, but if they are materially different, it is necessary to select one. In some situations, one of the values may be considered more representationally faithful because it is quoted in an active market. • Alternatively, if the stock is not actively traded but the asset is

one that is commonly traded, the asset’s fair value would be the better choice.

• If neither of the two fair values is readily observable, the company must assign the value that it believes to be the most faithful representation of the transaction (a level 3 input in the FASB’s fair value hierarchy).


Issuance of Securities

• In certain circumstances, when a company acquires property, plant, and equipment through donation, it is a nonreciprocal transfer of nonmonetary assets.• In general, GAAP requires that a donated asset

should be recorded at its fair value with a corresponding increase in either revenue or gain, depending on whether the transaction was part of the company’s ongoing operations or was a peripheral or incidental transaction.


Assets Acquired by Donation

• A nonmonetary exchange is a reciprocal transfer between a company and another entity in which the company acquires nonmonetary assets or services by surrendering other nonmonetary assets (Inventory, PP&E) or services (e.g., trade-in, swap).

• In general, the cost of a nonmonetary asset acquired in exchange for another nonmonetary asset is the fair value of the asset surrendered. • If the fair value of the asset received is more clearly evident

than the fair value of the asset surrendered, it can be used to measure the cost of the asset acquired.

• A gain or loss on the exchange is recognized as the difference between the fair value of the asset surrendered and its book value.


Nonmonetary Asset Exchanges(Slide 1 of 2)

• When a small amount of cash, often referred to as boot, is also given or received, the cost of the asset acquired and the gain or loss on the nonmonetary asset surrendered is determined by these equations:

AND


Nonmonetary Asset Exchanges(Slide 2 of 2)

• The conceptual basis of valuing the acquired asset at fair value and allowing for immediate gain or loss recognition is that, in most exchanges, the economic position of the two companies has changed as a result of the exchange.

• When the company’s future cash flows are expected to significantly change as a result of the exchange, the transaction has commercial substance.

• If an exchange does not have commercial substance and results in a loss, the general rule discussed earlier is followed. If the exchange does not have commercial substance and results in a gain, GAAP requires the gain to be deferred by reducing the cost of the asset.

• If a nonmonetary exchange which lacks commercial substance results in a gain and cash is received, GAAP allows a portion of the gain to be recognized. The recognized gain is determined based on a proportion of the cash received to the total consideration received.


Exception to the General Rule to Use Fair Value for Nonmonetary Exchanges

• Sometimes a company constructs an item of property, plant, and equipment that it intends to use in its operations.

• Similar to purchased assets, the cost of a self-constructed asset includes all expenditures necessary to build the asset and put it in operating condition.

• The costs directly related to construction—direct material and direct labor—and should be added to the cost of the asset.• The treatment of two other costs—overhead costs and

interest costs—have generated considerable debate.


What Is The Cost Of Self-Constructed Assets?

• There are two alternatives for a company to include overhead costs in the cost of a self-constructed asset.1. Allocate a portion of overhead to the self-

constructed asset in the same manner it allocates overhead to units of inventory produced. Those in favor of this alternative argue that:

• Construction related overhead is a relevant component of the asset’s cost and should be accounted for in the same way as regular products, even though this means that the regular products will be allocated less of the overhead.

• The cost of the constructed asset will be a more faithful representation of the cost to acquire and prepare the asset for use.

• Allocating overhead to self-constructed assets enhances comparability with the cost of an equivalent purchased asset because the seller normally would include fixed overhead in its selling price.


Overhead Costs(Slide 1 of 2)

2. Include only the incremental overhead in the cost of the self-constructed asset. Those in favor of this alternative argue that:

• To be representationally faithful, the cost of the asset should only include the additional costs incurred to produce it.

• To be comparable, the allocation of overhead to normal operations should not change because the overhead would have been incurred whether or not the construction takes place.

• Common practice is to allocate both variable overhead and a proportional share of fixed overhead to self-constructed assets.

• If the allocation of overhead causes the cost of the self-constructed asset to be greater than the fair value of the asset, the asset should be recorded at its fair value with the excess recognized as a loss in the current period.


Overhead Costs(Slide 2 of 2)

• The FASB considered three alternatives to account for interest (whether external financing costs or internal cost of capital) during the construction of property, plant, and equipment.• Do not capitalize any interest during construction. Under

this alternative, a company would treat interest as a financing cost and would record the interest as an expense during the period incurred.

• Capitalize an amount of interest (actual or imputed) for all funds used for construction. Under this alternative, a company would assign an interest cost to all funds used in construction, whether borrowed or not.

• Capitalize the actual interest on incremental funds borrowed for the construction. Under this alternative, a company would treat the cost of borrowed funds as part of the cost of constructing an asset, similar to the treatment of materials and labor.


Interest During Construction

• To implement the approach required by GAAP, a company must address three issues:• Does the asset qualify for interest capitalization? A

company is required to capitalize interest on assets that are either constructed for its own use (not land) or constructed as discrete projects for sale or lease to others. Interest cannot be capitalized for inventories that are routinely manufactured, assets that are in use or ready for their intended use, or assets that are idle and are not undergoing the activities necessary to get them ready for use.

• Over what period can interest be capitalized? The capitalization period begins when (1) expenditures for the asset have begun, (2) activities that are necessary to get the asset ready for its intended use are in progress, and (3) interest cost is being incurred. The capitalization period ends when the asset is substantially complete and ready for its intended use.


GAAP for Interest Capitalization(Slide 1 of 2)

• What amount of interest can be capitalized? The amount of interest capitalized for a qualifying asset is the portion of the interest cost that could have been avoided if the construction had not occurred. This amount is known as avoidable interest. A company determines avoidable interest by applying an interest rate to the weighted average accumulated expenditures for the qualifying asset during the capitalization period. The specific steps necessary to determine the amount of avoidable interest that can be capitalized are described next.

• If a company suspends substantially all the activities related to the construction of the asset, it suspends interest capitalization until the activities are resumed.© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in

whole or in part.

GAAP for Interest Capitalization(Slide 2 of 2)

Step 1: Determine the Weighted average accumulated expenditures for the period, defined as the sum of the construction expenditures weighted by the amount of time that interest cost could have been incurred on those expenditures during the construction period.

Step 2: Determine the appropriate interest rate. • If the weighted average accumulated expenditures are

less than or equal to the funds borrowed specifically to finance the construction of a qualifying asset, the company uses the interest rate on that specific borrowing.

• If the weighted average expenditures on the asset are greater than the specific borrowing or if no specific borrowing is made, the company uses both the interest rate on the specific borrowing and a weighted average interest rate on all other borrowings


Interest Capitalization Procedures(Slide 1 of 2)

Step 3: Compute avoidable interest by applying the appropriate interest rate(s) to the weighted average accumulated expenditures.

Step 4: Capitalize the lesser of avoidable interest or actual interest. The total amount of interest cost that a company capitalizes each period may not exceed the actual interest cost incurred.


Interest Capitalization Procedures(Slide 2 of 2)

• It is common for the construction project to extend beyond the end of a company’s fiscal year.

• In this situation, the procedure shown previously is repeated for the subsequent year with one adjustment—the total expenditures plus capitalized interest from the previous year is considered to be an outstanding expenditure as of the first day of the subsequent year.


Capitalized Interest – Multiple Accounting Periods

• When a company capitalizes interest costs instead of expensing them, it triggers two effects on the financial statements:• The company will report higher amounts for property,

plant, and equipment due to the capitalized interest being added to the acquisition cost of the equipment.

• The company does not report the capitalized amount of interest as interest expense during the construction period. Therefore, the company will report higher income than it otherwise would if it had expensed the full amount of interest. In addition, all things being equal, the capitalized interest will result in higher depreciation expense in future periods. Therefore, the capitalization of interest is essentially a question of asset valuation and timing of the expense recognition.

• GAAP requires that companies disclose both the capitalized interest amount and the total interest cost incurred in the notes to its financial statements.


Impact of Interest Capitalization

• After initial acquisition, companies make various expenditures relating to property, plant, and equipment for purposes ranging from routine repairs to major overhauls and improvements.

• The related accounting decision is whether to report these expenditures as investments that enhance property, plant, and equipment or to expense them. • Conceptually, if the expenditure is expected to increase the

future economic benefits of the asset, it should be capitalized (recorded as an asset).

• Otherwise, it should be recorded as an expense.


How Do We Account for Expenditures Subsequent to Acquisition? (Slide 1 of 2)

How Do We Account for Expenditures Subsequent to Acquisition?

• An expenditure that does not increase the economic benefits but is incurred to maintain the existing benefits is an operating expenditure (revenue expenditure) and is expensed in the period incurred.

• Many companies establish a lower limit, or materiality threshold, on the amount of expenditure that will be capitalized. Any amount below the lower limit will be expensed, regardless of whether it provides future benefits or not.

• Subsequent expenditures can be classified as additions, improvements and replacements, rearrangements, and repairs and maintenance.

• An expenditure that increases the expected future economic benefits of the asset above those that originally were expected is called a capital expenditure.

• The future economic benefits can be increased by:• extending the life of the

asset• improving productivity of

the asset by enabling the asset to produce more goods at the same cost or by producing the same quantity of goods at a lower cost

• increasing the quality of the product


• An addition involves enlarging an existing asset by adding a new component and they are capitalized as an asset.

• When an addition involves changing an existing asset, an issue arises as to how to account for the cost of such changes.


Additions

• An improvement (betterment) is the substitution of a better asset for the one currently used, such as the installation of a new solar heating system in a building.

• A replacement (renewal) is the substitution of an equivalent asset, such as a new engine in a truck. Expenditures related to improvements and replacements are capitalized as assets.

• There are three alternative methods for a company to account for such capitalized expenditures:• Substitution• Reduction of Accumulated Depreciation• Capitalization as a New Asset


Improvements and Replacements(Slide 1 of 3)

• Substitution: Under this method, the book value of the old asset is removed and a new asset is recorded. This only works if the book value of the old asset is known. This may not happen when purchased as part of a bigger asset, like a building.

• Reduction of Accumulated Depreciation: This method reduces accumulated depreciation, thereby increasing the asset’s book value, for the cost of the improvement or replacement. This method is appropriate when the expenditure extends the service life of the asset which, in effect, restores some of the service potential of the asset that had previously been depreciated.

• Capitalization as a New Asset: Under this method, the expenditure is capitalized as a new asset without removing the carrying amount of the old asset. This method is most appropriate for additions. This method is also appropriate for improvements and replacements, particularly if the book value of the old asset has been sufficiently depreciated to an immaterial amount.



• Rearrangement and moving: The costs of rearranging the facilities within a building or moving them to a new location are capitalized as assets and depreciated over the period expected to benefit. • If these costs are immaterial or if it’s uncertain that the costs

will provide future benefits, the company should expense such costs in the period incurred.

• Repairs and maintenance: Routine expenditures for repair and maintenance do not increase the future economic benefits of the asset but, instead, maintain the existing benefits provided by the asset and should be expensed in the period incurred.

• Usually a company expenses the cost of these major repairs.• If these repairs increase the future benefits of the asset similar

to an improvement or replacement, the cost should be capitalized.



i ntermediate a ccounting chapter 10 property, plant, and equipment: acquisition and subsequent...

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