Question

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU BARTER WITH STOCK?

Does It Matter Whether It’s Treasury Stock or Newly Issued Stock?

Clyde:              I acquired this land for my business by issuing stock. I did not pay a penny. Since it’s my stock, and I decided how much to give up for the land, does that mean I get to determine the value of the land on my balance sheet?

Fredrika:         You could have issued the stock to somebody else, taken the cash received, and paid for the land, right?

Clyde:              I suppose I could have, but I did not.

Fredrika:         The fact that you could have does imply there is some value for the stock and that it can be determined by referring to the market for that stock.

                 

Clyde:              I also bartered for some equipment. I exchanged some treasury stock for those assets. I suppose you are going to suggest that I could have reissued that treasury stock to somebody else, taken the proceeds, and purchased the equipment instead. While I could have, I did not.

Fredrika:         What exactly did you expect the advantage to be of bartering with treasury stock? For that matter, why did you issue stock for the land rather than merely pay cash?

Clyde:              Frankly, I thought that would allow me to set the value of both the land and the equipment. I mean, when you pay cash, that is the amount paid -— open and shut. Whereas, when you barter with goods, services, or in my case stock, don’t I have some discretion then?

Fredrika:         Do you believe you paid a fair price in stock?

Clyde:              Certainly. I mean, I would not have given up the stock unless I thought I received fair value in exchange. Are you telling me that the identical value would be recorded in my barter exchanges as if I had given up cash instead of stock or Treasury Stock?

Required:

Does Clyde have more discretion in the recording of his bartering exchanges than he would have had by paying cash? Use the FASB’s Accounting Codification System to answer this question and briefly explain why. Provide the specific citation(s) paragraphs that support your answer by cutting and pasting them from Accounting Standards Codification. Do you think it matters whether treasury stock or newly issued stock is used?

Answer 1

EXPLANATION : As per me i would say that in the above case as we can see that there is no clear value to the stock because it is not traded publicly therefore we can take the value of transaction by taking the fair market value of the land. Also we can see that clyde dosent have much of flexibility here in above case that is discretion in the recording of his barter exchange. But instead this can give a much better flexibility than paying cash as this option will let you consider multiple appraisals if you din't like the first one. FASB dosent allow for whatever we want so we will have some reasonable justification for the same. A reasonable procedure from here would be to have an appraisal and value the land at appraised price.