Question

1. An 80%-owned subsidiary sells merchandise to its parent at a markup of 25% on cost. During the current year, the parent paid $725,000 for merchandise received from the subsidiary. By year-end, the parent has sold $600,000 of the merchandise to outside customers for $900,000, but still holds the other $125,000 in its ending inventory. What is the impact of the above information on noncontrolling interest in net income, reported on the consolidated income statement for the year?

Answer 1

Answer:

The unrealised profit (PURP) of $5,000 [ (125,000 * .20) * (.2) ]  should be subtracted from the profit share of Non-Controlling Interest.

Explanation:

When we prepare consolidated financial statements, we treat the companies of group as a single entity. That's why the intra-group transactions must be removed the consolidated statements. This involve adjustment of current accounts, unrealised profit on sale of goods/non-current asset, loan given by one group company to another etc.

When goods are sold by one group company to another at a markup and the buyer has not yet sold it to the third party, then the markup (profit) loading on these items is unrealised from group's point of view. This needs to be removed from the consolidated accounts because no one can make profit by trading with himself. This profit is termed as realised when the goods are sold to the third party. In the individual accounts, profit on this transaction has a credit balance so to remove it we debit the "cost of goods sold of group" and a credit entry to it is made to "inventory". This credit entry to inventory bring down the balance of inventory to what was the cost of that inventory to the group. Moreover, the recording of revenue by seller and inventory by buyer on intra-group sales and purchase is also adjusted.

After all the adjustments are made, the profit is distributed between parent's retained earnings and non-controlling interest. Now if the seller of goods is subsidiary, like in this case, the amount of unreaslised profit is deducted from NCI's profit share to calculate the profit attributable to parent's retained earnings.