Intangibles Payables Employee Benefits and Long-Term Liabilities

Accounting for Intangibles, Payables and Taxation, Employee Benefits and Long-Term Liabilities

Accounting has certain terms that are common to most accounting systems. Since the international standards are being accepted by all member countries (including the United State by 2014 (Gornik-Tomaszewski & McCarty, 2003), all reporting will be standardized. The terms intangibles, payables and taxation, employee benefits, and long-term liabilities may have similar meanings when the international standards are adopted, but there will still be some differences in practice among the member nations. This essay looks into the representation, measurement, presentation and pronouncements specific to these four terms.

Intangible assets are those which is not acquired during a business transaction. The criteria for such an asset are that it lacks physical substance and that it is not a financial asset. This is why many times this asset is called goodwill (Shoaf & Zaldivar, 2005). However, the text wishes to make a definite distinction between goodwill and other intangible assets because not all of these types of gain can be explained within the accepted definition of goodwill. Most of the time this is something along the lines of customer lists, unpatented technology or leaseholds. These assets are measured by fair market value meaning that if it is something like a customer list it will be judged by the amount of income that particular list has generated in the past and demographic data regarding the potential customers on the list. The presentation of the assets must be in a line item, but depending on the asset they may be separately presented, or they can be presented under continuing operations.

The second category under consideration, payables and taxes, are considered liabilities of the company. Accounts payable can be recognized in different ways depending on how the company reflects the information on its balance sheet. The buyer of a certain amount of goods can either list them as payable when they are marked as shipped by the seller, or when they are delivered to the final destination. Either method is acceptable. Taxes are paid depending on the type of tax and the entity requesting the tax. Federal FICA and unemployment taxes, state sales tax, and local property taxes all have different schedules that depend on the specific laws that govern the dispensation of the monies. The measurement of payables is done differently whether the liability is a business payable or a government tax. Regular payables are measured by the amount that is expected to be paid to an entity for services rendered or product purchased when that payment comes due. The measurement of the taxes that a business must pay are based on the specific set of laws that governs that tax. Whether the tax is local, state or federal, the government entity with that jurisdiction sets the code that governs the measurement of that entity. Payables are presented as line items on the proper forms, which is also governed by governmental law that has been enacted prior to the debit to be counted.

Some employee benefits (such as FICA and unemployment insurance) have already been discussed, but there are many other types that must be legally entered into the books of a business. One example is an employee pension plan which must be recognized as an accounting entity which is entirely separate from other business transactions. It is a plan that is an agreement between the employee and employer to which the employer makes direct contributions (Schipper, 2010). This can be a traditional pension plan or, from more recent benefits packages, a contribution that an employer makes along with a certain contribution from the employee to a predetermined retirement account. This liability is measured when the balance sheet is due, and it is also measured with regard to future as well as present and past compensation amounts. The employee's benefit package is measured differently also depending on the type of benefit it is. Some benefits come with as tax-deferred assets while others are post-tax. The presentation of the employee benefit package also depends on the type of benefit that is being marked. The text lists a large number of disclosures that must be made regarding different post-retirement plans that will bring the balance sheet current with regard to all assets and liabilities. A fair market value of the plan and the funded status must be disclosed, health care trend rates, the timing of funding for a specific plan, and other disclosures have to be made with regard to each benefit.