Chapter 07 - Consolidated Financial StatementsOwnership Patterns and Income Taxes

CHAPTER 7
CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTSOWNERSHIP
PATTERNS AND INCOME TAXES
Chapter Outline
I.

Indirect subsidiary control

A. Control of subsidiary companies within a business combination is often of an indirect
nature; one subsidiary possesses the stock of another rather than the parent having
direct ownership.
1. These ownership patterns may be developed specifically to enhance control or for
organizational purposes.
2. Such ownership patterns may also result from the parent company's acquisition of a
company that already possesses subsidiaries.
B. One of the most common corporate structures is the father-son-grandson configuration
where each subsidiary in turn owns one or more subsidiaries.
C. The consolidation process is altered somewhat when indirect control is present.
1. The worksheet entries are effectively doubled by each corporate ownership layer but
the concepts underlying the consolidation process are not changed.
2. Calculation of the accrual-based income of a subsidiary recognizing the consolidated
relationships is an important step in an indirect ownership structure.
a. The determination of accrual-based income figures is needed for equity income
accruals as well as for the computation of noncontrolling interest balances.
b. Any company within the business combination that is in both a parent and a
subsidiary position must recognize the equity income accruing from its subsidiary
before computing its own income.

II. Indirect subsidiary control-connecting affiliation

A. A connecting affiliation exists whenever two or more companies within a business
combination hold an equity interest in another member of that organization.
B. Despite this variation in the standard ownership pattern, the consolidation process is
essentially the same for a connecting affiliation as for a father-son-grandson
organization.
C. Once again, any company in both a parent and a subsidiary position must recognize an
appropriate equity accrual in computing its own income.
III. Mutual ownership
A. A mutual affiliation exists whenever a subsidiary owns shares of its parent company.
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Chapter 07 - Consolidated Financial StatementsOwnership Patterns and Income Taxes

B. Parent shares being held by a subsidiary are accounted for by the treasury stock
approach.
1. The cost paid to acquire the parent's stock is reclassified within the consolidation
process to a treasury stock account and no income is accrued.
2. The treasury stock approach is popular in practice because of its simplicity and is now
required by the FASB Codification.

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Chapter 07 - Consolidated Financial StatementsOwnership Patterns and Income Taxes

IV. Income tax accounting for a business combinationconsolidated tax returns
A. A consolidated tax return can be prepared for all companies comprising an affiliated group.
Any other companies within the business combination file separate tax returns.
B. A domestic corporation may be included in an affiliated group if the parent company (either
directly or indirectly) owns at least 80 percent of the voting stock of the subsidiary as well
as 80 percent of each class of its nonvoting stock.
C. The filing of a consolidated tax return provides several potential advantages to the
members of an affiliated group.
1. Intra-entity profits are not taxed until realized.
2. Intra-entity dividends are not taxed (although these distributions are nontaxable for all
members of an affiliated group whether a consolidated return or a separate return is
filed).
3. Losses of one affiliate can be used to reduce the taxable income earned by other
members of the group.
D. Income tax expenseeffect on noncontrolling interest valuation
1. If a consolidated tax return is filed, an allocation of the total expense must be made to
each of the component companies to arrive at the realized income figures that serve
as a basis for noncontrolling interest computations.
2. Income tax expense is frequently assigned to each subsidiary based on the amounts
that would have been paid on separate returns.

V. Income tax accounting for a business combinationseparate tax returns

A. Members of a business combination that are foreign companies or that do not meet the 80
percent ownership rule (as described above) must file separate income tax returns.
B. Companies in an affiliated group can elect to file separate tax returns. Deferred income
taxes are often recognized when separate returns are filed due to temporary differences
stemming from unrealized gains and losses as well as intra-entity dividends.
VI. Temporary tax differences can stem from the creation of a business combination
A. The tax basis of a subsidiary's assets and liabilities may differ from their consolidated
values (which is based on the fair value on the date the combination is created).
B. If additional taxes will result in future years (for example, it the tax basis of an asset is
lower than its consolidated value so that future depreciation expense for tax purposes will
be less), a deferred tax liability is created by a combination.
C. The deferred tax liability is then written off (creating a reduction in tax expense) in future
years so that the net expense recognized (a lower number) matches the combination's
book income (a lower number due to the extra depreciation of the consolidated value).
Vll. Operating loss carryforwards
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Chapter 07 - Consolidated Financial StatementsOwnership Patterns and Income Taxes

A. Net operating losses recognized by a company can be used to reduce taxable income
from the previous two years (a carryback) or for the future 20 years (a carryforward).
B. If one company in a newly created combination has a tax carryforward, the future tax
benefits are recognized as a deferred income tax asset.
C. However, a valuation allowance must also be recorded to reduce the deferred tax asset to
the amount that is more likely than not to be realized.

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