In addition to filing its federal, state and local, and non-U.S. income tax returns, Premiere Computer Corporation, along with all other U.S. publicly traded corporations and many privately held corporations, must prepare financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) issued by the FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board). Under GAAP, a company includes as part of its income statement a “provision” for the income tax expense or benefit that is associated with the pretax net income or loss reported on the income statement. The income tax provision includes not only current-year taxes payable or refundable, but also any changes to future income taxes payable or refundable that result from differences in the timing of when an item is reported on the tax return compared to the financial statement. The company records the amount of future income taxes payable as a deferred tax liability and future income taxes refundable as a deferred tax asset on its balance sheet.
LO 17-1
3The Emerging Issues Task Force is a committee of accounting practitioners who assist the FASB in providing timely guidance on emerging issues and the implementation of existing standards.
Why Is Accounting for Income Taxes So Complex?
ASC 740 provides the general rules that apply to the computation of a company’s income tax provision. The basic principles that underlie these rules are fairly straightforward, but the application of the rules themselves can be very complex. Much of the complexity is due to the fact that the U.S. tax laws are complex and often ambiguous. In addition, com- panies frequently prepare their financial statements (Form 10-K) much earlier than their corresponding tax returns. For example, a calendar-year corporation generally files its Form 10-K with the SEC in February or early March, but it might not file its federal in- come tax return (Form 1120) with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) until September or October.4 As a result, management often must exercise a high degree of judgment in esti- mating the income tax return positions currently and in future years when a tax return position might be challenged by the tax authorities.
4The due date for a federal income tax return filed by a calendar-year corporation is April 15, but corporations can request a five-month extension to October 15 by filing Form 7004 and paying any remaining tax liability.
TAXES IN THE REAL WORLD What A Tangled Web We Weave . . .
On March 1, 2011, Weatherford International in- formed its shareholders that it would be late in issuing its Form 10-K because of a material weakness in internal control over the company’s financial reporting for income taxes. As a result, management cautioned its investors not to rely on any of its financial statements issued for the years 2007–2010. Management estimated the total financial reporting error to be around $500 million. At a press conference the next day, the CEO made the following statement:
To a degree, the discipline of tax within our Company is a two-headed animal—one, plan- ning, and two, process. Both pieces must work well in order for us to be able to maximize the value of our multinational status. This mistake, the embarrassment of which is difficult, if not im- possible to quantify, highlights that we have work to do on strengthening the process piece.
We will work hard to make sure this happens with all appropriate speed and effectiveness.* Weatherford remedied the deficiencies during 2013 and restated its 2009–2011 financial state- ments in December 2012. During 2012, the company hired a new vice president of taxes and 25 additional “qualified tax professionals.” In ad- dition, it spent considerable resources engaging third-party tax advisers and consultants to assist with enhancing internal controls over financial reporting for income taxes and developing and implementing a remediation plan; revising the process for the quarterly and annual tax provi- sions; recruiting positions within the tax and financial reporting departments; and providing income tax accounting training to tax and
financial staff. These expenditures were dis- closed in the company’s Proxy Statement in June 2013. Outside advisers had provided more than 272,000 hours of time to the restatement and re- mediation at a cost of over $100 million.
The remediation was completed by the end of December 2013, to management’s great relief.
However, the company announced that the SEC and the Department of Justice were investigating the circumstances surrounding the material weakness and the weaknesses in the company’s internal controls that led to restatement. In addi- tion, shareholders filed a lawsuit charging that Weatherford provided misleading financial state- ments. In September 2016, the SEC announced that its investigation had uncovered fraudulent accounting for income taxes committed by two company employees that understated (over- stated) the company’s income tax provision (profit after tax) by $461 million from 2007 to 2010.
The SEC fined Weatherford $140 million for violating the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The company’s outside auditors also were fined $11.8 million for failing to comply with Public Company Account- ing Oversight Board (PCAOB) auditing standards, and for not exhibiting professional skepticism and “fortitude” in their audit of Weatherford’s tax accounting procedures.
*Final transcript of Weatherford International to adjust 2007–2010 results due to “material weakness” in its income tax reporting—Conference Call. Available at http://www.sec.gov.
Source: Available at http://www.sec.gov.
After the tax return has been filed, it may take five years or more before it is audited by the IRS and the final tax liability is determined.5 For example, General Electric Com- pany (GE) mentioned in its Form 10-K for 2017 that the IRS was auditing its tax returns for 2012 and 2013 and had begun the audit for 2014 and 2015. GE also noted that it files more than 5,000 income tax returns in over 290 global taxing jurisdictions!
Objectives of ASC 740
ASC 740 applies only to income taxes levied by the U.S. federal government, U.S. state and local governments, and non-U.S. (“foreign”) governments. The FASB defines an in- come tax as a tax based on income. This definition excludes property taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes, and value-added taxes. Companies report nonincome taxes as expenses in the computation of their net income before taxes.
ASC 740 has two primary objectives. One is to “recognize the amount of taxes payable or refundable in the current year,” referred to as the current tax liability or asset.6 A second objective is to “recognize deferred tax liabilities and assets for the future tax consequences of events that have been recognized in an entity’s financial statements or tax returns.”7 Both objectives relate to reporting a company’s income tax amounts on the balance sheet, not on the income statement. The FASB refers to this method as the “asset and liability approach”
to accounting for income taxes.8 The FASB chose this approach because it is the most consistent with the definitions in FASB Concepts Statement No. 6, Elements of Financial Statements, and produces the most useful and understandable information.9
To compute the deferred tax liability or asset, a company calculates the future tax effects attributable to temporary book and tax differences and tax carryforwards.10 As you learned in the Corporate Operations chapter, temporary differences generally can be thought of as revenue (income) or expenses (deductions) that will appear on both the income statement and the tax return but in different periods. Temporary differences that are cumulatively favorable (that is, cause cumulative taxable income to be less than cu- mulative pretax book income) create deferred tax liabilities, while temporary differences that are cumulatively unfavorable (cause cumulative taxable income to exceed cumulative pretax book income) create deferred tax assets.
Before she began the income tax provision process, Elise knew she needed to get the ending balances in PCC’s deferred tax accounts from the prior year. Accordingly, she retrieved PCC’s prior year balance sheet (Exhibit 17-1) and the deferred tax component of the company’s income tax note (Exhibit 17-2).
Looking at Exhibit 17-2, what income tax accounts appear on PCC’s balance sheet from the prior year?
Answer: PCC has a net deferred tax liability of $1,680,210.
Since its inception, has PCC had net favorable or unfavorable temporary differences (i.e., has PCC’s cumulative pretax net income been greater or less than its taxable income)?
Answer: PCC’s net deferred tax liability indicates that the company has had net cumulative favorable temporary differences, which indicates its cumulative pretax net income has exceeded its cumulative taxable income.
Example 17-1
5Although the statute of limitations for a filed income tax return is three years, large corporations often agree to extend the statute for a longer period of time to allow the IRS to audit the return. As a result, a corpora- tion’s tax return may not be audited for five or more years from the date it is filed.
6ASC 740-10-10-1(a).
7ASC 740-10-10-1(b).
8FAS 109, ả63. (This paragraph was not codified in ASC 740.)
9FAS 109, ả63.
10ASC 740-10-25-2(b).
Assets Current Assets
Cash $10,722,380
Municipal bonds 300,000
Accounts receivable 17,250,000
Less: Allowance for bad debts (345,000)
Accounts receivable (net) 16,905,000
Inventory 4,312,500
Total current assets $32,239,880
Noncurrent Assets
Fixed assets $60,000,000
Less: Accumulated depreciation (12,000,000)
Fixed assets (net) 48,000,000
Life insurance (cash surrender value) 1,100,000 Investments 497,960 Goodwill 180,000
Total noncurrent assets 49,777,960
Total assets $82,017,840 Liabilities and Shareholders’ Equity
Current Liabilities
Accounts payable $20,013,000
Reserve for warranties 430,000
Total current liabilities $20,443,000
Noncurrent Liabilities
Long-term debt $40,000,000
Deferred compensation 1,200,000
Deferred tax liabilities 1,680,210
Total noncurrent liabilities $42,880,210
Total liabilities $63,323,210 Shareholders’ Equity
Common stock (par value = $1) $ 500,000
Additional paid-in capital 5,000,000
Retained earnings 13,194,630
Total shareholders’ equity $18,694,630
Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity $82,017,840
EXHIBIT 17-1 PCC Balance Sheet at 12/31/2017
Deferred Tax Assets
Allowance for bad debts $ 72,450
Reserve for warranties 90,300
Net operating loss carryforward 5,040
Deferred compensation 252,000
Capital loss carryforward —
Contribution carryforward —
Total deferred tax assets $ 419,790 Valuation allowance for deferred tax assets — Deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowance $ 419,790 Deferred Tax Liabilities
Depreciation (2,100,000)
Total deferred tax liabilities $(2,100,000)
Net deferred tax liabilities $(1,680,210)
EXHIBIT 17-2 PCC Deferred Tax Accounts at 12/31/2017
The Income Tax Provision Process
A company computes the two components of its income tax provision (current and de- ferred) separately (independently) for each category of income tax (U.S. federal, U.S.
state and local, and international) and then combines the components to produce the total income tax provision. We can summarize the formula to compute a company’s total income tax provision as:
Total income tax provision = Current income tax expense (benefit) + Deferred income tax expense (benefit)
A company computes its federal income tax provision using a six-step process. These steps are:
1. Adjust pretax net income or loss for all permanent differences.
2. Identify all temporary differences and tax carryforward amounts.
3. Calculate the current income tax expense or benefit (refund).
4. Determine the ending balances in the balance sheet deferred tax asset and liability accounts.
5. Evaluate the need for a valuation allowance for gross deferred tax assets.
6. Calculate the deferred income tax expense or benefit.