The notes that accompany a company’s financial statements provide informative details that would clutter the amounts and descriptions presented in the statements. Refer to the financial statements of TSMC in Appendix A and the 2016 annual report’s Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, available at the company’s website.

Answer the following questions. Complete the requirements in millions of new Taiwan dollars, as shown in TSMC’s annual report.
a. What did TSMC report for the amount of inventories in its consolidated statement of financial position at December 31, 2016? At December 31, 2015?
b. Compute the new Taiwan dollar amount of change and the percentage change in inventories between 2015 and 2016. Compute inventory as a percentage of current assets at December 31, 2016.
c. How does TSMC value its inventories? Which inventory cost flow method does TSMC use? (See Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements.)
d. What is the cost of sales (cost of goods sold) reported by TSMC for 2016 and 2015? Compute the percentage of cost of sales to net sales in 2016.