Question

Mark or Make is a bourbon distillery. Sales have been steady for the past three years, and operating costs have remained unchanged. On January 1, 2019, Mark or Make took advantage of a special deal to prepay its rent for three years at a substantial savings. The amount of the prepayment was $60,000. The income statement items (excluding the rent) are shown here.

2019 2020 2021
Gross profit on sales 350,000 349,000 351,000
Operating expense 210,000 210,000 210,000

Assume that the rental is deducted on the corporate tax purposes in 2019 and that there are no other temporary differences between taxable income and pretax accounting income. In addition, there are no permanent differences between taxable income and pretax accounting income. The corporate tax rate for all three years is 30%.

Required:
Construct income statements for 2019, 2020, and 2021 under the following approaches to interperiod income tax allocation:

a. No allocation
b. Comprehensive allocation
c. Do you believe that no allocation distorts Mark or Make’s net income? Explain.

Answer 1

a. No allocation

2019 2020 2021

Gross Profit on Sales 350,000 349,000 351,000

Less: Operating Expense 210,000 210,000 210,000

Gross Revenue 140,000 139,000 141,000

Rent (Prepaid) 0 0 0

Revenue after Rent paid 140,000 139,000 141,000

Less: Corporate Taxes at 30% 42,000 41,700 42,300

Net Income $98,000 $97,300 $98,700

Considerations for No Allocation

- Taxes are to be deducted from Gross Profit.

- Rent not to be deducted from Gross Profit.

b. Comprehensive Allocation

2019 2020 2021

Gross Profit on Sales 350,000 349,000 351,000

Less: Operating Expense 210,000 210,000 210,000

Gross Revenue 140,000 139,000 141,000

Rent (Prepaid) 60,000 60,000 60,000

Revenue after Rent paid 80,000 79,000 81,000

Less: Corporate Taxes at 30% 24,000 23,700 24,300

Net Income 56,000 55,300 56,700

Considerations for Comprehensive Allocation

- Taxes are to be deducted from Gross Profit.

- Rent is to be deducted from Gross Profit.

c. No allocation distorts Mark or Make’s Net Income for all three years. This is because if Rent is not allocated taxes will be calculated on Gross Revenue. That is to say, Rent is a Non-Operating Expense and hence is to be deducted from Revenue to Calculate the Taxes. When Revenue is reduced, obviously, the taxes will be reduced. Hence, less income is seen in Comprehensive Income Statement and more Revenue is seen in Simple - Non Comprehensive Statement.