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Craig Deegan’s Financial Accounting 8e continues to be the market-leading and most
Financial Accounting
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Craig Deegan
vi Contents in brief
ONLINE CHAPTERS
Chapter 31 Further consolidation issues III: accounting for indirect ownership interests
Chapter 32 Accounting for investments in associates and joint ventures
Introduction to accounting for depreciation of property, plant and equipment 181 Learning objectives 180
Depreciable amount (base) of an asset 182 Summary 195
Determination of useful life 183 Key terms 196
Method of cost apportionment 184 End-of-chapter exercises 196
Depreciation of separate components 187 Review questions 196
When to start depreciating an asset 188 Challenging questions 198
Revision of depreciation rate and depreciation method 188
Land and buildings 189
Modifying existing non-current assets 191
Disposition of a depreciable asset 191
Depreciation as a process of allocating the cost of an asset over its useful life:
further considerations 193
Disclosure requirements 194
CONTENTS IN FULL ix
Introduction to revaluations and impairment testing of non-current assets 203 Learning objectives 202
Measuring property, plant and equipment at cost or at fair value—the choice 203 Summary 227
The use of fair values 204 Key terms 228
Revaluation increments 205 End-of-chapter exercises 228
Treatment of balances of accumulated depreciation upon revaluation 206 Review questions 229
Revaluation decrements 209 Challenging questions 231
Reversal of revaluation decrements and increments 210 References 233
Accounting for the gain or loss on the disposal or derecognition of a revalued
non-current asset 212
Recognition of impairment losses 216
Further consideration of present values 221
Offsetting revaluation increments and decrements 223
Investment properties 223
Economic consequences of asset revaluations 224
Disclosure requirements 226
Introduction to accounting for heritage assets and biological assets 301 Learning objectives 300
Accounting for heritage assets 301 Summary 336
Accounting for biological assets 320 Key terms 337
End-of-chapter exercises 337
Review questions 337
Challenging questions 338
References 341
x CONTENTS IN FULL
Introduction to accounting for share capital and reserves 458 Learning objectives 457
Different classes of shares 459 Summary 476
Accounting for the issue of share capital 460 Key terms 476
Accounting for distributions 467 End-of-chapter exercises 477
Redemption of preference shares 468 Review questions 478
Forfeited shares 470 Challenging questions 480
Share splits and bonus issues 472 References 480
Rights issues and share options 473
Required disclosures for share capital 475
Reserves 475
CONTENTS IN FULL xi
Introduction to the statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income 586 Learning objectives 585
Profit or loss disclosure 589 Summary 617
Statement of changes in equity 603 Key terms 618
Prior period errors 604 End-of-chapter exercises 618
Changes in accounting policy 607 Review questions 618
Profit as a guide to an organisation’s success 613 Challenging questions 620
Future changes in the requirements pertaining to how we present References 624
information about comprehensive income 615
Overview of accounting for exploration and evaluation expenditures under AASB 6 743 Learning objectives 742
Extractive industries defined 744 Summary 772
Alternative methods to account for preproduction costs 745 Key terms 773
Abandoning an area of interest 748 End-of-chapter exercises 773
Accumulation of costs pertaining to exploration and evaluation activities 748 Review questions 773
Basis for measurement of exploration and evaluation expenditures 749 Challenging questions 775
Impairment and amortisation of costs carried forward 750 References 776
Restoration costs 752
Sales revenue 754
Inventory 755
Disclosure requirements 755
Does the area-of-interest method provide a realistic value for an entity’s reserves? 764
Research on accounting regulation pertaining to pre-production expenditures 764
Other developments in extractive industry reporting 767
The development of a new accounting standard for extractive activities 769
What is an ‘event after the reporting period’? 781 Learning objectives 780
Types of events after the reporting period 782 Summary 789
Disclosure requirements 787 Key terms 789
End-of-chapter exercises 789
Review questions 789
Challenging questions 790
CONTENTS IN FULL xiii
CHAPTER 27 FURTHER CONSOLIDATION ISSUES II: ACCOUNTING FOR NON-CONTROLLING INTERESTS 966
Introduction to accounting for foreign currency transactions 1009 Learning objectives 1008
Foreign currency transactions 1009 Summary 1020
Determination of functional currency and presentation currency 1013 Key terms 1021
Longer-term receivables and payables 1014 End-of-chapter exercises 1021
Translation of other monetary assets such as cash deposits 1015 Review questions 1022
Qualifying assets 1016 Challenging questions 1025
Hedging transactions 1018
Foreign currency swaps 1019
Introduction to translating the financial statements of foreign operations 1029 Learning objectives 1028
Reporting foreign currency transactions in the functional currency 1029 Summary 1043
Translating the accounts of foreign operations into the presentation currency 1036 Key terms 1043
Consolidation subsequent to translation 1041 End-of-chapter exercises 1043
Review questions 1045
Challenging questions 1045
CONTENTS IN FULL xv
ONLINE CHAPTERS
CHAPTER 31 FURTHER CONSOLIDATION ISSUES III: ACCOUNTING FOR INDIRECT OWNERSHIP INTERESTS
CHAPTER 32 ACCOUNTING FOR INVESTMENTS IN ASSOCIATES AND JOINT VENTURES
Appendix A 1122
Appendix B 1124
Appendix C 1126
Glossary1128
Index1137
This is the eighth edition of a book that was originally research studies that consider the merit, implications, and
published in 1995. Since the first edition of this book was costs and benefits of the various accounting requirements.
published we have seen extensive changes in relation to Also, various newspaper articles discussing different
the practice and regulation of general purpose financial aspects of the accounting requirements are reproduced
reporting. These changes continue to occur and this book for consideration and discussion. The permission of
has always attempted to carefully explain the nature of copyright holders to reproduce this material is gratefully
the changes as well as the potential economic and social acknowledged.
consequences which might result from such changes. Social-responsibility reporting continues to be an
In the period of time between when the seventh important area of accounting, and one that is rapidly
edition of this book was published, and the writing of this developing. Its importance is further highlighted by the
eighth edition was completed (writing was completed in growing evidence of climate change, species extinction,
March 2016) there have been some rather significant and large scale poverty, hunger and social inequities in
changes in regulation and guidance pertaining to external many countries. While this book predominantly considers
reporting. These changes have been incorporated financial accounting and reporting, Chapter 30 focuses
within this eighth edition and some of the major changes on social-responsibility reporting and provides the most
we cover relate to such areas as financial statement up-to-date and comprehensive material available on this
presentation, The Conceptual Framework for Financial important topic with additional material being added on
Reporting, accounting for leases, revenue recognition, the important topic of Climate Change—both from an
financial instruments, and corporate social-responsibility accounting and scientific perspective—as well as the
reporting. Because many of these changes are significant inclusion of commentaries on various alternative reporting
we will provide critical comparisons of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ frameworks.
requirements. Writing a text like this is an extremely time-consuming
Each chapter of this eighth edition contains learning exercise and it has been very gratifying that the effort
objectives, chapter summaries and a comprehensive end- involved has been rewarded by so many institutions
of-chapter exercise. A glossary of key terms is provided across Australia (and also some outside Australia) electing
towards the back of the book. The book provides material to prescribe previous editions of this book as part of their
that will enable the reader to gain a thorough grasp of the accounting programs. Given the success of all previous
contents and of the practical application of the majority editions, every effort has been made to ensure that this
of financial accounting requirements currently in place eighth edition is equally valuable to students and teachers,
in Australia. In the discussion of these requirements, and that it has been substantially and thoroughly revised.
numerous worked examples, with detailed solutions, are
provided throughout the text.
As well as addressing how to apply the various
accounting requirements, this text also encourages
readers to critically evaluate the various rules and
guidelines. The aim is to develop accountants who are
not only able to apply particular accounting requirements,
but who will also be able to contribute to the ongoing
improvement of accounting requirements. The view taken
is that it is not only important for students to understand
the rules of financial accounting, but also to understand
the limitations inherent in many of the existing accounting
requirements. For this reason, reference is made to various
Preface xvii
There are many people who must be thanked for their Wales; Lee Moermon, University of Wollongong; Gary
contribution to the eighth edition of this book. First, our Monroe, Australian National University; Richard Morris,
thanks to the following reviewers of the current edition: University of New South Wales; Anja Morton, Southern
Cross University, Lismore campus; Karen Ness, James
Bobae Choi, University of Newcastle; Sally Chaplin, Cook University; Cameron Nichol, RMIT University; Gary
Queensland University of Technology; Victoria Clout, Plugarth, University of New South Wales; Lisa Powell,
University of New South Wales; Sajan Cyril, Australian University of South Australia; Jim Psaros, University of
Catholic University; Colin Dolley, Edith Cowan University; Newcastle; Michaela Rankin, Monash University; Andrew
Peter Dryden, Federation University; Hermann Frick, Read, University of Canberra; Kathy Rudkin, University
University of Queensland; Syed Haider, Victoria of Wollongong; Dan Scheiwe, Queensland University
University; Andrew Jackson, University of New South of Technology; Mark Silvester, University of Southern
Wales; Arifur Khan, Deakin University; Eric Lee, Monash Queensland; Stella Sofocleous, Victoria University of
University; Janet Lee, Australian National University; Technology; Jenny Stewart, Griffith University; Seng
Jinghui Liu, Southern Cross University; Tracey McDowall, The, Australian National University; Len Therry, Edith
Deakin University; Balachandran Muniandy, La Trobe Cowan University; Matthew Tilling, University of Western
University; Puspalila Muniandy, Deakin University; Australia; Irene Tutticci, University of Queensland; Mark
Gregory Phillip, University of Newcastle; Pranil Prasad, Vallely, University of Southern Queensland; Trevor
University of the South Pacific; Maria Prokofieva, Victoria Wilmshurst, University of Tasmania; Victoria Wise,
University; Glenn Rechtschaffen, University of Auckland; University of Tasmania; Ann-Marie Wyatt, University of
Natasja Steenkamp, Central Queensland University; Technology Sydney.
Grantley Taylor, Curtin University; Suzanne Mary Taylor,
QUT Business School; Maria Tyler, CQUniversity Mackay Thanks also go to many of my colleagues at RMIT
campus; Effiezal Aswadi Abdul Wahab, Curtin University. University for their friendship and encouragement. The team
at McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) also deserve a great
This book has also been improved during the course of deal of thanks for helping in the preparation of this book.
the first seven editions by the feedback received from many Lastly, but certainly not leastly, thanks again go to my
people and I would like to acknowledge the contribution that 16-year-old daughter Cassandra for all the love and support
they have previously made. These people include: she gives me in whatever I seem to be doing and for
Maria Balatbat, University of New South Wales; Peter continually helping me to put everything into perspective. As
Baxter, University of the Sunshine Coast; Poonam Bir, I have said before, she is indeed my finest work (and my most
Monash University; Phil Cobbin, University of Melbourne; valuable ‘asset’) and represents that aspect of my life of which
Lome Cummings, Macquarie University; Matt Dyki, Charles I am most proud.
Sturt University, Wagga Wagga campus; Natalie Gallery,
Queensland University of Technology; John Goodwin,
RMIT University; Deborah Janke, University of Southern
Queensland; Maurice Jenner, University of Southern
Queensland; Graham Jones, Flinders University; Peter
Keet, RMIT University; Janet Lee, Australian National
University; Steven Lesser, Charles Sturt University,
Wagga Wagga campus; Stephen Lim, University of
Technology Sydney; Janice Loftus, University of Sydney; The publisher would also like to thank the following
Wei Lu, Monash University; Diane Mayorga, University digital contributors: Victoria Clout, Parmod Chand, Maria
of New South Wales; Kellie McCombie, University of Prokofieva, Jackie Liu, Maria Balatbat, Eric Lee and
Wollongong; Malcolm Miller, University of New South Matt Dyki.
xviii Acknowledgments
McGraw-Hill Education is a proud corporate member of AACSB1 International. Understanding the importance and value
of AACSB accreditation, Financial Accounting has sought to recognise the curricula guidelines detailed in the AACSB
standards for business accreditation by connecting content and exercises to the general knowledge and skill guidelines
found in the AACSB standards.
The statements contained in Financial Accounting and in its digital resources are provided only as a guide for the
users of this text. The AACSB leaves content coverage and assessment within the purview of individual institutions,
the mission of the institutions, and the faculty. While Financial Accounting and the teaching package make no claim of
any specific AACSB qualification or evaluation, we have, within Financial Accounting identified chapters as containing
content and labelled activities according to the general knowledge and skills areas.2
1
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business [http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/standards.asp]
2
AACSB International 2008, ‘Eligibility procedures and accreditation standards for business accreditation’, www.aacsb.edu
AACSB statement xix
AUREUS OF CARAUSIUS.
AUREUS OF ALLECTUS.
SOLIDUS OF HELENA.
SOLIDUS OF GALERIUS.
SOLIDUS OF LICINIUS I.
The land tax, of course, was not the only one, for the theory of
Imperial finance was that everybody and everything should pay.
Constantine did not spare his new aristocracy. Every member of the
senatorial order paid a property tax known as “the senatorial purse”
(follis senatoria), and another imposition bearing the name of aurum
oblaticium, which was none the more palatable because it was
supposed to be a voluntary offering. Any senator, moreover, might
be summoned to the capital to serve as prætor and provide a costly
entertainment—a convenient weapon in the hands of autocracy to
clip the wings of an obnoxious ex-official. Another ostensibly
voluntary contribution to the Emperor was the aurum coronarium, or
its equivalent of a thousand or two thousand pieces of gold, which
each city of importance was obliged to offer to the sovereign on
festival occasions, such as the celebration of five or ten complete
years of rule. Every five years, also, there was a lustralis collatio to
be paid by all shopkeepers and usurers, according to their means.
This was usually spoken of as “the gold-silver” (chrysargyrum), and,
like “the senatorial purse,” is said by some authorities to have been
the invention of Constantine himself. Zosimus, in a very bitter attack
on the fiscal measures of the Emperor, declares that even the
courtesans and the beggars were not exempt from the extortion of
the treasury officials, and that whenever the tribute had to be paid,
nothing was heard but groaning and lamentation. The scourge was
brought into play for the persuasion of reluctant taxpayers; women
were driven to sell their sons, and fathers their daughters. Then
there were the capitatio humana, a sort of poll-tax on all labourers;
the old five per cent. succession duty; an elaborate system of octroi
(portoria), and many other indirect taxes. We need not, perhaps,
believe the very worst pictures of human misery drawn by the
historians, for, in fairness to the Emperors, we must take some note
of the roseate accounts of the official rhetoricians. Nazarius, for
example, explicitly declares that Constantine had given the Empire
“peace abroad, prosperity at home, abundant harvests, and cheap
food.”[148] Eusebius again and again conjures up a vision of
prosperous and contented peoples, living not in fear of the tax-
collector, but in the enjoyment of their sovereign’s bounty. But we
fear that the sombre view is nearer the truth than the radiant one,
and that the subsequent financial ruin, which overtook the western
even more than the eastern provinces, was largely due to the
oppressive and wasteful fiscal system introduced and developed by
Diocletian and Constantine, and to the old standing defect of Roman
administration, that the civil governor was also the judge, and thus
administrative and judicial functions were combined in the same
hands.
Here, indeed, lay one of the strongest elements of disintegration in
the reorganised Empire, but there were other powerful solvents at
work, at which we may briefly glance. One was slavery, the evil
results of which had been steadily accumulating for centuries, and if
these were mitigated to some extent by the increasing scarcity of
slaves, the degradation of the poor freeman to the position of a
colonus more than counterbalanced the resultant good. Population,
so far from increasing, was going back, and, in order to fill the gaps,
the authorities had recourse to the dangerous expedient of inviting in
the barbarian. The land was starving for want of capital and labour,
and the barbarian colonus was introduced, as we have seen in an
earlier chapter, not, if the authorities are to be trusted, by tens, but by
hundreds of thousands, “to lighten the tribute by the fruits of his toil
and to relieve the Roman citizens of military service.” This was the
principal and certainly the original reason why recourse was had to
the barbarian; the idea that the German or the Goth was less
dangerous inside than outside the frontier, and would help to bear
the brunt of the pressure from his kinsmen, came later. The result,
however, of importing a strong Germanic and Gothic element into the
Empire was one of active disintegration. Though they occupied but a
humble position industrially, as tillers of the soil, they formed the best
troops in the Imperial armies. The boast which Tacitus put into the
mouth of a Gallic soldier in the first century, that the alien trooper
was the backbone of the Roman army,[149] was now an undoubted
truth, and the spirit which these strangers brought with them was that
of freedom, quite antagonistic to the absolutism of the Empire.
There was yet another great solvent at work,—in its cumulative
effects the greatest of them all,—the solvent of Christianity,
dissociating, as it did, spiritual from temporal authority, and
introducing the absolutely novel idea of a divine law that in every
particular took precedence of mundane law. The growth of the power
of the Church, as a body entirely distinct from the State and claiming
a superior moral sanction, was a new force introduced into the
Roman Empire, which, beyond question, weakened its powers of
resistance to outside enemies, inasmuch as it caused internal
dissensions and divisions. The furious hatreds between Christianity
and paganism which lasted in the West down to the fall of Rome,
and the equally furious hatreds within the Church which continued
both in East and West for long centuries, can only be considered a
source of serious weakness. No one disputes that the desperate and
murderous struggle between Catholic and Huguenot retarded the
development of France and weakened her in the face of the enemy,
and it stands to reason that a nation which is torn by intestinal
quarrel cannot present an effective front to foreign aggression. It
wastes against members of its own household part of the energy
which should be infused into the blows which it delivers at its foe.
Christianity has always tended to break down distinctions and
prejudices of race. It has never done so wholly and never will, but
the tendency is forever at work, and, as such, in the days of the
Empire, it was opposed both to the Roman and to the Greek spirit.
For though there had already sprung up a feeling of cosmopolitanism
within the Empire, it cannot be said to have extended to those
without the Empire, who were still barbarians in the eyes not only of
Greek or Roman, but of the Romanised Celt and Iberian, whose
civilisation was no longer a thin veneer. When we say that
Christianity was a disintegrating element in this respect, the term is
by no means wholly one of reproach. For it also implies that
Christianity assisted the partial fusion which took place when at
length the frontier barriers gave way and the West was rushed by the
Germanic races. These races were themselves Christianised to a
certain extent. They, too, worshipped the Cross and the Christ, and
this circumstance alone must, to a very considerable degree, have
mitigated for the Roman provinces the terrors and disasters of
invasion. It is true that the invaders were for the most part Arians,—
though it is a manifest absurdity to suppose that the free Germans
from beyond the Rhine understood even the elements of a
controversy so metaphysical and so purely Greek,—and, when Arian
and Catholic fought, they tipped their barbs with poison. “I never yet,”
said Ammianus Marcellinus, “found wild beasts so savagely hostile
to men, as most of the Christians are to one another.”[150] But the fact
remains that the German and Gothic conquerors, who settled where
they had conquered, accepted the civilisation of the vanquished
even though they modified it to their own needs; they did not wipe it
out and substitute their own, as did the Turk and the Moor when they
appeared, later on, at the head of their devastating hordes. If,
therefore, Christianity tended to weaken, it also tended to assimilate,
and we are not sure that the latter process was not fully as important
as the former. The Roman Empire, as a universal power, had long
been doomed; Christianity, in this respect, simply accelerated its
pace down the slippery slope.
But other and more specific charges have been brought against
Christianity. One is that it contributed largely to the depopulation of
the Empire, which, from the point of view of the State, was an evil of
the very greatest magnitude. The indictment cannot be refuted
wholly. In the name of Christianity extravagant and pernicious
doctrines were preached of which it would be difficult to speak with
patience, did we not remember that violent disorders need violent
remedies. No one can doubt the unutterable depravity and
viciousness which were rampant and unashamed in the Roman
Empire, especially in the East. If there was a public conscience at all,
it was silent. Decent, clean-living people held fastidiously aloof and
tolerated the existence of evils which they did nothing to combat. A
strong protest was needed; it was supplied by Christianity. But many
of those who took upon themselves to denounce the sins of the age
felt compelled to school themselves to a rigid asceticism which made
few allowances not only for the weaknesses but even for the natural
instincts of human nature. The more fanatical among them
grudgingly admitted that marriage was honourable, but rose to
enthusiastic frenzy in the contemplation of virginity, which, if they
dared not command, they could and did commend with all the
eloquence of which they were capable. One cannot think without pity
of all the self-torture and agonising which this new asceticism—new,
at least, in this aggravated form—brought upon hundreds and
thousands of men and women, whose services the State needed
and would have done well to possess, but who cut themselves off
from mundane affairs, and withdrew into solitudes, not to learn there
how to help their fellowmen but consumed only with a selfish anxiety
to escape from the wrath to come. They thought of nothing but the
salvation of their own souls. It is impossible to see how these wild
hermits, who peopled the Libyan deserts, were acceptable in the
sight either of themselves, their fellows, or their God. Simon Stylites,
starving sleepless on his pillar in the posture of prayer for weeks,
remains for all time as a monument of grotesque futility. If charity
regards him with pity, it can only regard with contempt those who
imputed his insane endurance unto him for righteousness. No one
can estimate the amount of unnecessary misery and sufferings
caused by these extreme fanatics, who broke up homes without
remorse, played on the fears and harrowed the minds of
impressionable men and women, and debased the human soul in
their frantic endeavour to fit it for the presence of its Maker. They
stand in the same category as the gaunt skeletons who drag
themselves on their knees from end to end of India in the hope of
placating a mild but irresponsive god. Man’s first duty may be
towards God; but not to the exclusion of his duty towards the State.
It is not to be supposed, of course, that the majority of Christians
were led to renounce the world and family life. The weaker brethren
are always in a majority, and we do not doubt that most of the
Christian priests were of like mind with their flock in taking a less
heroic but far more common-sense view. It is also to be noted that
the practical Roman temper speedily modified the extravagances of
the eastern fanatics, and the asceticism of monks and nuns living in
religious communities in the midst of their fellow-citizens, and
working to heal their bodies as well as to save their souls, stands on
a very different plane from the entirely self-centred eremitism
associated with Egypt. By doing the work of good Samaritans the
members of these communities acted the part of good citizens.
Succeeding Emperors, whose Christianity was unimpeachable,
looked with cold suspicion on the recluses of the deserts. Valens, for
example, regarding their retirement as an evasion of their civic
duties, published an edict ordering that they should be brought back;
Theodosius with cynical wisdom said that as they had deliberately
chosen to dwell in the desert, he would take care that they stopped
there. But it is easy to exaggerate the influence wielded by extreme
men, whose doctrines and professions only emerge from obscurity
because of their extravagances. We must not, therefore, lay too
much stress on the constant exhortations to celibacy and virginity
which we find even in the writings of such men as Jerome and
Ambrose. However zealously they plied the pitchfork, human nature
just as persistently came back, and the extraordinary outspokenness
of Jerome, for example, in his letters to girls who had pledged
themselves to virginity—an outspokenness based on the confident
assumption that human, and more especially womanly, nature is
weak and liable to err—shews that he was profoundly diffident of the
success of his preaching. Nevertheless, when the counsel of
perfection offered by the Church was the avoidance of marriage, it is
a just charge against Christianity that it was in this respect anti-civic
and anti-social.
DOUBLE SOLIDUS OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT.