Accounting principles require that companies include disclosure of "comprehensive income" in the financial statements. The most common form of disclosure is to add a separate financial statement called something like a "Statement of Comprehensive Income."

Comprehensive income is a combination of net income from the income statement and some specially designated items that are considered to be "other comprehensive income."

Comprehensive income = Net income + other comprehensive income
(Note that the terms in the formula above are generic. Losses are negative income.)

The most common example of other comprehensive income is unrealized gains or losses on certain types of investments.

For example, assume Carolina Company invested $66000 in the stock of Young Company on June 30, Year1. On December 31, Carolina Company still owned the Young Company stock. At December 31, Year1, the Young Company stock was worth $68500.

The Young Company stock has appreciated $2500. The gain is considered to be unrealized because the stock was not sold. The unrealized gain would be recorded by Carolina Company in an entry that increases the investment account (an asset) by $2500 and increases equity by $2500. The unrealized gain is excluded from net income. Rather, it is considered to be an item of "other comprehensive income."

Assume that for Year1, Carolina Company reports $641000 of net income on the income statement.

Using the facts above, what would Carolina Company report as Comprehensive Income for Year1?

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B) As you recall, the default rule for balance sheet valuation is "historical cost." However, there are many exceptions to this rule.

One notable exception is the valuation of most investments in securities for which there is a readily determinable market value (stocks traded on an exchange, for example. These investments need to be valued on the balance sheet at their fair market value on the balance sheet date. To accomplish this, companies need to do an adjusting entry (often called a mark-to-market entry). The investment account is increased or decreased as needed to adjust it the market value, and the other side of the entry is an "unrealized gain or loss" or "holding gain or loss". (As usual, there are various naming conventions that are used in practice.)

These types of unrealized gains and losses are not included as part of net income and are instead defined as OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME items. Other comprehensive income items are recorded in the equity section of a balance sheet in an account called ACCUMULATED OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME.

Contrast these two examples:

Example 1.
A stock investment (purchase of stock in another company) costing $1,000 earlier in the year is sold for $1,200 on the last day of the year. The stock purchase is originally recorded at cost and in this case has not been adjusted as it is sold before any adjustments were recorded. Here there is a $200 REALIZED gain. Realized gains and losses are part of net income and as a result, end up in retained earnings on the balance sheet. Here is the sale transaction in accounting equation format.

.	A		L	E
Balance before sale (not complete)	Cash ....	Investment 1,000	.	Retained Earnings .....	Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income .....
Sales entry	+1,200	-1,000	.	+200	.

The $200 realized gain is reported as part of net income and as a result, increases retained earnings on the balance sheet.

Example 2:
Now assume the same $1,000 investment is not sold at the end of the year. The company does the required adjusting entry to reflect the investment at the $1,200 market value on the balance sheet.

.	A		L	E
Balance before adjustment (not complete)	Cash ....	Investment 1,000	.	Retained Earnings .....	Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income .....
Adjusting entry		+200	.		+200

The investment will be reported at $1,200 on the balance sheet. The $200 of unrealized gain is NOT included in net income. It is OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (OCI) and therefore is included in the disclosure of COMPREHENSIVE INCOME for the year, as you saw in the previous OWL question.

The $200 also increases the equity account called ACCUMULATED OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (AOCI). This account does exactly what the name indicates. It holds cumulative OCI amounts over time-- similar to how retained earnings hold cumulative net income over time.

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Now- a quick question.
Assume at the beginning of Year2, Becker Company has a credit (positive) balance in the AOCI account of $10800.

Becker Company reports $653000 of net income for Year2.
Becker has an unrealized gain of $3000 during Year2. The gain qualifies as OCI (Other comprehensive income).

1. What will Becker report as Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income on the Year2 balance sheet?

2. What will Becker report as Comprehensive Income for Year2?

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C) Steffan Company has the following balance in Shareholder equity accounts at the end of Year3:

The shareholder equity section of the balance sheet at 12/31/Year3
Common stock	$1,000,000
Retained earnings	$151866
Accumulated other comprehensive income	$14350
Total shareholder equity	$1166216

During Year 4, Steffan Company

has a net income of $328000

declares and pays dividends of $19800

records an unrealized loss of $3500. The loss is an OCI item.

1. What is Comprehensive Income for Year4?

2. What is the balance in these equity accounts on the balance sheet at 12/31/Year4?
----Retained earnings

----Accumulated other comprehensive income

----Total shareholder equity

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

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