Topic: Acquisition of a subsidiary and consolidation entries

The practical project involves two parts:

- Part A is the preparation of a selection of consolidation elimination journals for year ending 30 June 2019, for an economic entity comprising a parent and subsidiaries plus working papers of a professional standard.

- Part B is an explanation of the outcome of the consolidation process undertaken in Part A.

Part A

The World Retailing Ltd acquires 80 per cent of the shares of Mark Construction Ltd on 30 June 2019 for a consideration of $584 000. The share capital and reserves of Mark Construction Ltd at the date of acquisition are:

There are no transactions between World Retailing Ltd and Mark Construction Ltd at the date of acquisition. All assets of Mark Construction Ltd are fairly valued at the date of acquisition, except for a major plant that had a fair value $25 000 greater than its carrying amount. The cost of the plant was $125 000 and it had accumulated depreciation of $90 000.

In addition, the World Retailing Ltd acquired 100 per cent of the shares of Adelaide Retailing Ltd on 1 July 2017-that is two years earlier.

The cost of investment was $500 000. At that date the capital and reserves of Adelaide Retailing Ltd were:

At the date of acquisition all assets of Adelaide Retailing Ltd were considered to be fairly valued. Adelaide Retailing Ltd declared and paid dividend $120 000 on 30 June 2019. World Retailing Ltd incurred the following transactions with Adelaide Retailing Ltd during financial year 2018-2019:

- During the year World Retailing made total sales to Adelaide Retailing of $71 000, while Adelaide Retailing sold $56 000 in inventory to World Retailing.

- The closing inventory in World Retailing includes inventory acquired from Adelaide Retailing at a cost of $45 000. This cost Adelaide Retailing $38 000 to purchase.

- The opening inventory in World Retailing as at 1 July 2018 included inventory acquired from Adelaide Retailing for $62 500 that cost Adelaide Retailing $53 750.

- Adelaide Retailing paid $55 000 in management fees to World Retailing.

- On 1 July 2018 World Retailing sold an item of plant to Adelaide Retailing for $145 000 when its carrying amount in World Retailing's accounts was $100 000 (initial cost $168 650, accumulated depreciation $68 650). This plant is assessed as having a remaining useful life of nine years.

You were appointed as the financial accountant at World Retailing Ltd in May 2019. As you may have noticed, World Retailing Ltd acquires 80% shares of Mark Construction Ltd to extend its operation in Australia and it also has an existing wholly owned subsidiary (Adelaide Retailing Ltd) operating in Adelaide. You are requested to prepare consolidation/elimination journal entries for the economic entity for year ending 30 June 2019.

After meeting with your supervisor you gathered the following information which you might need to complete your work:
- World Retailing Group Ltd has the following accounting policies for the economic entity:

(i) Revaluation adjustments on acquisition are to be made on consolidation only, not in the books of any subsidiary;

(ii) Plant is depreciated using the straight-line method with no residual value. For part-years, depreciation is to be calculated on the number of months the asset is held in the relevant year.

(iii) All calculated amounts are to be rounded to the nearest whole dollar. Companies in the group do not show cents in any journals, worksheets, or financial statements.
- Management team of World Retailing believes that goodwill acquired from business combination is impaired by $5 000 in the current financial year. Previous impairment of goodwill amounted to $15 000.
- The company tax rate is currently 30%.
- Journal narrations are not requested by your supervisor.

Part B

The financial statements for year ending 30 June 2019 for the economic entity have been prepared on the basis of your journals from Part A. These statements have been presented to the Board of Directors.

One of the Board members pointed out that the new business acquired by World Retailing is a construction company. Its financial statements should not be consolidated because it is involved in construction, whereas all of the other companies in the economic entity are involved in retailing industry.

The Board is also alarmed that the economic entity's balance sheet shows a deferred tax balance, when the accounts for World Retailing Ltd had no deferred tax asset or deferred tax liability.

As the financial accountant you are requested to prepare a response to the following questions:

(a) Should the financial statements of new acquired business, Mark Construction Ltd, be consolidated into the economic entity and why? (250 words maximum)

(b) Why does the economic entity have a deferred tax balance? (500 words maximum)

You must make reference to relevant paragraphs of the Accounting Standard and/or AASB Framework and to other sources of material. Harvard Style referencing is expected.

Length: 1,500 words maximum (comprising calculations and working papers in Part A equivalent to 750 words and a written component of 750 words in Part B)