Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Write-offs'

Abstract One of the major features of financial reporting is conservatism. Accounting conservatism is traditionally defined by the adage “anticipate no profit, but anticipate all losses.” Accounting conservatism is manifested in two general but distinct ways. First, conservatism can be unconditional, meaning that the book value of net assets is understated due to predetermined accounting practices (e.g. immediate expensing of research and development expenditures as incurred). Second, conservatism can be conditional, meaning that the book value of assets is written down under sufficiently adverse circumstances, but not up under favorable circumstances (e.g. goodwill impairment rules). This dissertation focuses only on conditional conservatism. The purpose of this dissertation is to increase our understanding of conditional conservatism through three inter-related essays. These essays seek to answer the following research questions: (1) Are standard measures of conditional conservatism affected by the asymmetry in cash flows? (2) How does “bad news” contribute to the persistence of accruals and cash flows? (3) Do firms manage fair value based goodwill write-offs under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 142 (SFAS 142)? (4) What are the economic consequences of SFAS 142 goodwill write-offs? Collectively, the empirical results of this dissertation further our understanding of the determinants and implications of conditional conservatism. The first essay demonstrates that the asymmetry in cash flows biases standard measures of conditional conservatism. The second and third essays are one of the first to assess conservatism using an individual accrual account, namely, SFAS 142 goodwill write-offs. The second essay examines the reliability of goodwill write-offs, while the third essay provides evidence on the economic consequences of goodwill write-offs. The findings of these two essays are important for the debate on whether fair value measurements in financial statements are appropriate.

The objective of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is to provide useful information to the users of financial statements to assist in making economic decisions. To be useful, information has to be relevant and reliable, but the reliability of information suffers when the guidelines for the reporting of specific issues are not clear and managerial discretion arises. Write-offs are one of those accounting issues that are regularly related to earnings management. By now it is seen as common knowledge that write-offs, especially those on goodwill, do not reflect declines in asset value; rather, they are used as a device to manipulate financial reports. However, there is a striking lack of grounded theoretical research that can confirm this assessment. The aim of this dissertation is to provide valuable analytical and empirical insights on fixed asset write-offs under IFRS. In a first step, the practical implementation of IAS 36 in Europe has to be analyzed, which is best done empirically. Based on the findings from these empirical surveys, the most substantial questions remaining are subject to an in-depth analytical discussion. Since IAS 36 entails different measurement issues that have their origins in finance theory, this dissertation also aims to introduce some basic techniques from theoretical finance to accounting research. Lastly, as the analyses presented in this dissertation do not cover all open questions on fixed asset write-offs, the author hopes to encourage further research on this important topic.

The thesis deals with inventory management in Rhiag Group. It is particularly focused on enhancement of model which is used for relocation of goods within the group. Purpose of this model is to improve allocation efficiency measured by items write-off value. Initially, author describes making of database which enables quantifying benefits of relocation, followed by testing of optimal relocation algorithm settings and determinig maximal delivery values for each relocation flow. In conclusion, optimal parameters of the model are recommended and benefits for Rhiag Group are estimated.

Prior to Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No.121 (SFAS No.121): Accounting for the Impairment of Long-Lived Assets and Long-Lived Assets to Be Disposed Of, managers had substantial discretion concerning the amount and timing of reporting writedowns of long-lived assets. Moreover, the frequency and dollar amount of asset writedown announcements that led to a large “surprise” caused the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to consider the need for a new standard to guide the recording of impairment of long-lived assets. This study has two primary objectives. First, it investigates the effects of SFAS No.121 on asset impairment reporting, examining whether SFAS No.121 reduces the magnitude and restricts the timing of reporting asset writedowns. Second, the study compares the information content (surprise element) of the asset impairment loss announcement as measured by cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) before and after the issuance of SFAS No.121. The findings provide support for the hypothesis that the FASB's new accounting standard does not affect the magnitude of asset writedown losses. The findings also provide support for the hypothesis that SFAS No. 121 does not affect the management choice of the timing for reporting asset writedowns. In addition, the findings suggest that the market evaluates the asset writedown losses after the issuance of SFAS No. 121 as good news for “big bath” firms, while, for “income smoothing” firms, the market does not respond to the announcements of asset writedown losses either before or after the issuance of SFAS No. 121. The findings also suggest that, for “big bath” firms, the market perceives the announcement of asset impairment losses after the adoption of SFAS No. 121 as more credible relative to that before its issuance. This could be because the practice of reporting asset writedowns after the issuance of SFAS No. 121 is under the FASB's authoritative guidance, which brings consistency and comparability in asset impairment reporting.

Bakgrund Sedan IFRS infördes 2005 skall goodwill inte lägre skivas av utan istället testas för nedskrivning minst en gång per år. Nedskrivningsprövningen har sedan dess kritiserats av flertalet forskare och ansetts vara ett ämne för earnings management (EM). Eftersom goodwill skall värderas till verkligt värde följer viss problematik, särskilt under lågkonjunkturer då det är svårt att förutspå hur långvarig den ekonomiska nedgången förväntas bli. Cykliska branscher, såsom bankbranschen, är känsliga för förändringar i konjunkturen och således borde sådana förändringar avspeglas i bankernas goodwillpost. Syfte Studien har två övergripande syften, dels att kartlägga nedskrivningar av goodwill i nordiska storbanker och dels att testa samband mellan dessa och olika konjunkturlägen, Big Bath Accounting och Income Smoothing. Målet med studien är att komplettera det redan befintliga forskningsområdet gällande EM vid nedskrivning av goodwill. Detta genom att ta konjunkturens påverkan i beaktning samt inkludering av nordiska storbanker.   Metod Då tidigare studier inom området har exkluderat bankbranschen, var det just av denna anledning som banker valdes ut för studien. För att besvara studiens syfte och frågeställning föll sig en kvantitativ metod mest lämplig. Insamlad data från årsredovisningar perioden mellan 2006–2017 sammanställdes i statistiska modeller och tester och därmed kunde studiens resultat erhållas. Resultat &amp; Slutsats Studiens resultat visar att varken konjunktur, utövande av Big Bath Accounting eller Income Smoothing signifikant påverkar nedskrivning av goodwill i nordiska storbanker. Studien kan därmed inte påvisa förekomsten av någon av dessa två strategier för EM, vilket motsäger tidigare forskning. Gällande konjunkturens påverkan på nedskrivning av goodwill föreligger en negativ korrelation där nedskrivningar tenderar att vara som störst under en lågkonjunktur. Dock har inget tydligt mönster för när nedskrivningar har gjorts kunnat urskiljas.<br>Background Since IFRS was introduced in 2005, goodwill should no longer be amortized but instead be tested for impairment at least once a year. The impairment test has been criticized by most researchers and blamed to be a topic for earnings management (EM). Because goodwill is measured at fair value, certain problems follow. Especially during recession, when it is hard to predict how long the economic downturn is expected. The banking industry are particularly sensitive to changes in the business cycle. Therefore, should these changes should be reflected in their goodwill. Purpose This study has two main purposes, partly to identify impairments of goodwill in major Nordic banks and partly to test the statistical relationship between these and different economics conditions, Big Bath Accounting and Income Smoothing. The aim of the study is to supplement the existing research regarding earnings management and impairment of goodwill. This by taking different economic conditions in account and including Nordic major banks. Method Previous studies in the research area has excluded the banking industry, for this reason, banks were selected for our study. To answer the study's purpose and issue, a quantitative method fell most suitably. To be able to perform statistical models and tests to obtain a result, data was collected from each bank annual reports during 2006–2017. Results and conclusion The result of the study shows that neither the economic conditions, Big Bath Accounting or Income Smoothing has a significant impact on the impairment of goodwill in banks Nordic Large Cap. The study could not demonstrate the presence of any of these two strategies for earnings management, which contradicts previous research. Regarding the impact of economic conditions of goodwill impairment, there is a negative correlation where write-downs tend to be greater during a recession. Thus, no pattern for when write-downs of goodwill have been made.

Accounting for goodwill and identifiable intangibles is one of the most controversial issues in financial reporting. It has been on the agenda of the Australian Accounting Standards Board, the US, UK, and the International Accounting Standards Boards, and the Full High Court of Australia. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has also placed accounting for intangibles in its Media Releases directed at specific companies. Evidence suggests that the materiality of goodwill and identifiable intangible assets in corporate statements of financial position for a large number of companies is the reason for the considerable attention given to goodwill and identifiable intangibles. The present study has two objectives. First, it analyses the Australian market perception of goodwill and identifiable intangibles as assets in the determination of the market valuation of companies. Second, it investigates whether the market perceives goodwill and identifiable intangibles as wasting resources when valuing Australian firms. In order to achieve these objectives, the analysis initially develops and estimates a model (the asset-based model) that uses financial position statement items to explain the market value of companies' equity. This model examines the association between reported goodwill and identifiable intangible asset values and companies' market values. Given Ohlson's (1993) argument that companies' market value might be better explained by a model that includes a stock concept of value and a flow concept of earnings, a second model (the asset and income-based model) that incorporates an income variable into the initial model, is then developed and estimated. This model examines the association between the goodwill and identifiable intangible amortisation expense and companies' market values. Evidence suggests that there is a statistically significant negative association between equity market values and write-offs of goodwill, confirming the market perception of write-offs of goodwill as a wasting resource when valuing companies. Evidence also suggests that there is a statistically significant negative association between equity market values and write-offs of identifiable intangibles, at least for the total sample of the present study, providing limited evidence of the market perception of identifiable intangibles as wasting resources when valuing companies. However, the negative and inconsistently significant association between equity market values and write-offs of identifiable intangibles on an annual basis suggests that the relationship may be more complex than traditionally analysed

This dissertation work deals with theme of appraisement long term tangible assets in company in terms of intradepartmental bookkeeping, which company give upon voluntary base. Work is situated into five independent parts, when is the first devoted delimitation financial and intradepartmental bookkeeping and differences between them. Furthermore is mention about legislative delimitation single access to appraisement in terms of both bookkeeping. Second part is focused on substantial of meaning subject of dissertation work. Third part discusses about theoretic bases this work; define difference in appraisement that is based on prices found out on basis of court expert record against appraisement real value. Next part is devoted research, from whose coming - out designed model of appraisement real value. Follows by work evaluation, her scientific contribution to theory, practice and pedagogy.

碩士<br>朝陽科技大學<br>會計所<br>96<br>The present study is using linear multilevel regression to predict the assets write-offs in Taiwan companies. Most current researches emphasized with motivation, timing, and capital market reaction. But there is no one trying to predict the amount of the write-offs which can provide more financial information to the public and investors evaluation indicators. In the past researches, assets write-offs variables can be divided into financial information, industry categories and macroeconomic sets. As asset write-off data collected from different years and varied industry, it is hard to meet the independent identical distribution (iid) assumption for the sampling observations. The heterogeneous effect of observations would induce the prediction biases which can be improved by multilevel linear regress model. This technique has the following advantages: (1) To understand groups effect such as industry and macroeconomics. (2) To involve group effect to get more accurate prediction results. (3) To correct the collinear problems in the linear regression model with embedded group dummy variables. The empirical results show that the assets write-offs in Taiwan listing and OTC companies have some minor group effect and the random effect is affected by the Bath variable. From the cross-industry-year group view, the multi-level linear regression model forecasts would be superior to the linear regression model results.

碩士<br>淡江大學<br>會計學系碩士班<br>96<br>The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 144, “Accounting for the Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets” in 2002. This study examines whether earnings management incentives affect the association between the amount of assets impairment loss and discretionary accruals. This paper also aims to explore whether corporate governance affect the association between asset write-offs and concurrent discretionary accruals. Empirical results document that this association are subject to earrings management motives. Specifically, for “big bath” and “income smoothing” firms, managers tend to manage the earnings downward by the magnitude of asset write-offs and discretionary accruals. Additional analyses reveal that strong governance mechanisms have a higher propensity to constrain managers to engage in earnings management activities, namely “big bath” and income smoothing behaviors

碩士<br>淡江大學<br>會計學系碩士班<br>95<br>In June 2001, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 142, “Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets.” The provisions of the pronouncement are effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2001, with early adoption encouraged. Under SFAS No. 142, goodwill and intangible assets with indefinite useful lives are not amortized, but instead are tested for impairment at least annually. The first objective of the study is to examine the managers’ adoption timing choice is associated with various earnings management motives. The empirical results reveal that firms that are close to violate their debt covenants are more likely to adopt early, if the adoption results in an increase in earnings, consistent with the debt/equity hypothesis. In addition, we found that firms with a negative effect of adoption on earnings and unfavorable earnings performance in the year of adoption tend to adopt early in an attempt to take a “big bath”, and that early adopting firms are more likely to experience a higher incidence of change in senior management in the year of adoption than do late adopters. The second objective of the study is to investigate whether reporting incentives determine the magnitude of goodwill write-offs. Specifically, for the late adopting sample, the paper documents that the level of goodwill write-offs is relatively smaller for more highly leveraged firms. We also found that late adopting firms with management compensation schemes directly tied to income also tend to record a smaller amount of goodwill impairment loss and act in a manner consistent with either “big bath” or “smoothing” behavior. Taken together, the findings imply that the adoption timing choice of SFAS No. 142 and the magnitude of goodwill write-offs are associated with various earnings management motives. The third objective of the study is to examine the influence of impairment declaration on American stock market. The results find that cumulative abnormal returns are negatively associated with both the expected portion and unexpected portion of asset write-offs for early and late adoption firms. this study finds that the stock market appears to respond to the impairment announcement negatively.

碩士<br>淡江大學<br>會計學系碩士班<br>94<br>Asset impairment is one of the important components in a firm''s financial statement. Because the amount of impairment is often huge, and it''s crucial to firms'' performance and earnings value measuring. This study discusses that the factors affect the recognition of impairment loss and the influence of impairment declaration on Taiwan''s stock market. A number of extant asset impairment studies always analyze their sample by dividing into two subsamples - experimental group and control group. However, this study examines all the firms listed at stock exchange market and over-the-counter market excluded financial and insurance industry. Furthermore, the prior papers always assume that the market unexpected the recognition of asset impairment. In this study, we conduct our analysis by dividing the recognition of asset impairment into expected and unexpected. Empirical results indicate that economic factors (book-to-market ratio and the change in ROA ) and reporting incentives ( income smoothing variables ) affect the amount of impairment for firms early-adopted Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 35 “Accounting for Asset Impairment.”. For the firms adopted the statement late, the impairment amount are affected by economic factors (book-to-market ratio, the change in ROA and industry book-to-market) and reporting incentives (political cost, income smoothing and the change in management ). The results find that cumulative abnormal returns are negatively associated with both the expected portion and unexpected portion of asset write-offs for early adoption firms, indicating that early adopters do not anticipate asset write-offs before the mandatory adoption date. For late adopters, this study finds that the stock market appears to respond to the impairment announcement negatively, if the write-off amounts are greater than expected.

碩士<br>國立屏東科技大學<br>農企業管理系所<br>95<br>Agricultural finance, which belongs to the scope of specific finance in nature, has established for the demand and development of agriculture, and provided the way to support or seek for funding. Since 1990’s, due to some external factors, financial liberalization and internationalization, and so on, the quality of assets of the agricultural financial institutes have gotten worse, and the ratio of non-performing loan (NPL) has increased continually. They have been in a predicament on the management performance, and have not developed agricultural financial functions any more. As a result, our government established the Financial Restructuring Fund to implement the financial reform in 2001, which assigned 10 local banks, for instance, Taiwan Bank, to take over 36 credit departments of agricultural and fishery associations. The negative income was shown on their balance sheets. And another 7 ones were taken over the following year. Totally 43 credit departments were taken over and reorganized in 2 years. The effect that the above credit departments caused to damage public treasury and financial order was huge. The entire NPL ratio, which is above 7%, maintains in high level up to now and the problems still exist. In consideration of those problems, for understanding the reasons of the breakdown of credit departments, we should probe into the critical points of the risk of loans, and study the methods to prevent the occurrence of bad debts and speed the write-offs for them. I would like to provide some suggestions for agricultural financial institutes to enhance their loan performance, which are the motive and the purpose of this research. The affairs about loan include two phases. They are the scientific part and the artistic part. The former is a statistical and physical study through credit techniques by the data of borrower and guarantor, and the latter is an abstract judgment by the experience and knowledge of the loan staffs. Since the society changes rapidly, all the factors can not be controlled precisely, and the occurrence of the risk of past due loan may be unavoidable. However, the loan assets are the biggest for the agricultural financial institutes, and also the source of the main profits. If a loan causes a bad debt, there should be covered by the interests of loans of multiples. Therefore, this research gets the most important conclusion that to strengthen the quality management about loans, it is necessary to provide with the precise policy about loans and fulfill the system of loan management. That includes keeping the 5 loan’s principles firmly, paying attention to the changes of environment, and avoiding being misled by the collateral and excessively relying on the guarantor, and especially deliberating for follow-up of loans, risk diversification and evaluation. The jobs of write-offs about bad debts always depend on the staffs of the debt collective department. Their specialized knowledge and the spirit of fulfilling their duties faithfully without complaints are the reasons to ensure the creditor’s right and decrease the loss of bad debts. According to the Article 2 of Agricultural Finance Act, the existing agricultural financial system constructs a two-tier management with National Agricultural Bank as the main governing body and credit departments as the main subordinating body. Nonetheless, this research shows that the former of them still lack for the system to guide and assist effectively on the business of “loan” and “debt collective”. Therefore, this research suggests that National Agricultural Bank should establish the “loan” and “debt collective” regional center to promote the loan quality and speed receiving the funding through the specialized and centralized management. In the mean while, concerning the “Agricultural Management Company”, which has been discussed and planned to be established by the government for many years, this research also suggests that it should be established and performed by the authorities concerned as soon as possible in order to effectively aid our agricultural financial institutes to speed write-offs about bad debts.

碩士<br>國立臺灣大學<br>會計學研究所<br>102<br>The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) released a revised version of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 141 (SFAS No. 141(R)) in December 2007. Accounting treatments of acquired in-process research and development (IPR&;D) in a business combination change from expensing to capitalizing as an indefinite-life intangible asset, and need to perform annual impairment test subsequently. Combining the above changes with the thriving M&;A activities trend in U.S. biotech and pharmaceuti&;#172;cal industry, this research will focus on the industry, summarize M&;A transactions including acquired IPR&;D capitalization happened in the period of 2009-2012 and inspect the appropriateness of acquired IPR&;D capitalization. Examination the association between impairment indicators and write-offs of acquired IPR&;D is also performed. Empirical results reveal that acquired IPR&;D amount and subsequent one-year operating cash flows are correlated significantly in the sample of 98 observations. Five impairment indicators are identified that being related with acquired IPR&;D impairment recogni&;#172;tion. This research also collects possible reasons that result in the impairment.