Question

Martinez Company received the following selected information from its pension plan trustee concerning the operation of the company’s defined benefit pension plan for the year ended December 31, 2020.

January 1, 2020 December 31, 2020
Projected benefit obligation $1,517,000 $1,545,000
Market-related and fair value of plan assets 803,000 1,132,300
Accumulated benefit obligation 1,580,000 1,698,300
Accumulated OCI (G/L)—Net gain 0 (201,700 )

The service cost component of pension expense for employee services rendered in the current year amounted to $78,000 and the amortization of prior service cost was $118,300. The company’s actual funding (contributions) of the plan in 2020 amounted to $249,000. The expected return on plan assets and the actual rate were both 10%; the interest/discount (settlement) rate was 10%. Accumulated other comprehensive income (PSC) had a balance of $1,183,000 on January 1, 2020. Assume no benefits paid in 2020.

Determine the amounts of the components of pension expense that should be recognized by the company in 2020.

Answer 1

$1,337,700

Step-by-step explanation:

The computation of the amounts of the components of pension expense is shown below:

Service cost $78,000

Amortization of Prior Service cost $1,183,000 ($1,698,300 - $1,580,000)

Interest on PBO $157,000 ($1,517,000 ×10%)

Less: Expected return on plant assets $80,300 ($803,000 × 10%)

Pension expense $1,337,700

We simply applied the above formula so that the amount of pension expense could come