Question

Ken Young and Kim Sherwood organized Reader Direct as a corporation; each contributed $55,000 cash to start the business and received 4,000 shares of stock. The store completed its first year of operations on December 31, 2017. On that date, the following financial items for the year were determined: cash on hand and in the bank, $50,500; amounts due from customers from sales of books, $28,500; equipment, $54,000; amounts owed to publishers for books purchased, $9,000; one-year notes payable to a local bank for $5,250. No dividends were declared or paid to the stockholders during the year.

Assuming that Reader Direct generates net income of $6,000 and pays dividends of $3,600 in 2018, what would be the ending Retained Earnings balance at December 31, 2018?
This is the problem I have been given, and I've gotten to this point. I am just very confused on the Ending RE and Beginning RE.
So far I have
ENDING RE = BEG RE + Net Income- Dividends
________ = _______ + 6,000 - 3,600

Answer 1

The ending retained earning would be $2,400

Step-by-step explanation:

For computing the ending retained earnings balance, we have to use the formula which is shown below:

Even in the question, the formula is given so we use it

Ending retained earnings = Beginning retained earnings + net income - dividend

Ending retained earnings = 0 + $6,000 - $3,600

In the question, the beginning retained earnings balance is not given so we assume zero balance

So, the ending retained earnings would be $2,400