看完以后，你就不再是ACCA报名新手

1 Alvaro Pelorus is 47 years old and married to Maria. The couple have two children, Vito and Sophie, aged 22 and

19 years respectively. Alvaro and Maria have lived in the country of Koruba since 1982. On 1 July 2005 the family

moved to the UK to be near Alvaro’s father, Ray, who was very ill. Alvaro and Maria are UK resident, but not ordinarily

resident in the tax years 2005/06 and 2006/07. They are both domiciled in the country of Koruba.

On 1 February 2007 Ray Pelorus died. He was UK domiciled, having lived in the UK for the whole of his life. For the

purposes of inheritance tax, his death estate consisted of UK assets, valued at ￡870,000 after deduction of all

available reliefs, and a house in the country of Pacifica valued at ￡94,000. The executors of Ray’s estate have paid

Pacifican inheritance tax of ￡1,800 and legal fees of ￡7,700 in respect of the sale of the Pacifican house. Ray left

the whole of his estate to Alvaro.

Ray had made two gifts during his lifetime:

(i) 1 May 2003: He gave Alvaro 95 acres of farm land situated in the UK. The market value of the land was

￡245,000, although its agricultural value was only ￡120,000. Ray had acquired the land on

1 January 1996 and granted an agricultural tenancy on that date. Alvaro continues to own the

land as at today’s date and it is still subject to the agricultural tenancy.

(ii) 1 August 2005: He gave Alvaro 6,000 shares valued at ￡183,000 in Pinger Ltd, a UK resident trading

company. Gift relief was claimed in respect of this gift. Ray had acquired 14,000 shares in

Pinger Ltd on 1 April 1997 for ￡54,600.

You may assume that Alvaro is a higher rate taxpayer for the tax years 2005/06 and 2006/07. In 2006/07 he made

the following disposals of assets:

(i) On 1 July 2006 he sold the 6,000 shares in Pinger Ltd for ￡228,000.

(ii) On 1 September 2006 he sold 2,350 shares in Lapis Inc, a company resident in Koruba, for ￡8,270. Alvaro

had purchased 5,500 shares in the company on 1 September 2002 for ￡25,950.

(iii) On 1 December 2006 he transferred shares with a market value of ￡74,000 in Quad plc, a UK quoted company,

to a UK resident discretionary trust for the benefit of Vito and Sophie. Alvaro had purchased these shares on

1 January 2006 for ￡59,500.

Alvaro has not made any other transfers of value for the purposes of UK inheritance tax. He owns the family house

in the UK as well as shares in UK and Koruban companies and commercial rental property in the country of Koruba.

Maria has not made any transfers of value for the purposes of UK inheritance tax. Her only significant asset is the

family home in the country of Koruba.

Alvaro and his family expect to return to their home in the country of Koruba in October 2007 once Ray’s affairs have

been settled. There is no double taxation agreement between the UK and Koruba.

Required:

(a) Calculate the inheritance tax (IHT) payable as a result of the death of Ray Pelorus. Explain the availability

or otherwise of agricultural property relief and business property relief on the two lifetime gifts made by Ray.

(8 marks)

1 The board of Worldwide Minerals (WM) was meeting for the last monthly meeting before the publication of the yearend

results. There were two points of discussion on the agenda. First was the discussion of the year-end results;

second was the crucial latest minerals reserves report.

WM is a large listed multinational company that deals with natural minerals that are extracted from the ground,

processed and sold to a wide range of industrial and construction companies. In order to maintain a consistent supply

of minerals into its principal markets, an essential part of WM’s business strategy is the seeking out of new sources

and the measurement of known reserves. Investment analysts have often pointed out that WM’s value rests principally

upon the accuracy of its reserve reports as these are the best indicators of future cash flows and earnings. In order to

support this key part of its strategy, WM has a large and well-funded geological survey department which, according

to the company website, contains ‘some of the world’s best geologists and minerals scientists’. In its investor relations

literature, the company claims that:

‘our experts search the earth for mineral reserves and once located, they are carefully measured so that the company

can always report on known reserves. This knowledge underpins market confidence and keeps our customers

supplied with the inventory they need. You can trust our reserve reports – our reputation depends on it!’

At the board meeting, the head of the geological survey department, Ranjana Tyler, reported that there was a problem

with the latest report because one of the major reserve figures had recently been found to be wrong. The mineral in

question, mallerite, was WM’s largest mineral in volume terms and Ranjana explained that the mallerite reserves in

a deep mine in a certain part of the world had been significantly overestimated. She explained that, based on the

interim minerals report, the stock market analysts were expecting WM to announce known mallerite reserves of

4·8 billion tonnes. The actual figure was closer to 2·4 billion tonnes. It was agreed that this difference was sufficient

to affect WM’s market value, despite the otherwise good results for the past year. Vanda Monroe, the finance director,

said that the share price reflects market confidence in future earnings. She said that an announcement of an incorrect

estimation like that for mallerite would cause a reduction in share value. More importantly for WM itself, however, it

could undermine confidence in the geological survey department. All agreed that as this was strategically important

for the company, it was a top priority to deal with this problem.

Ranjana explained how the situation had arisen. The major mallerite mine was in a country new to WM’s operations.

The WM engineer at the mine said it was difficult to deal with some local people because, according to the engineer,

‘they didn’t like to give us bad news’. The engineer explained that when the mine was found to be smaller than

originally thought, he was not told until it was too late to reduce the price paid for the mine. This was embarrassing

and it was agreed that it would affect market confidence in WM if it was made public.

The board discussed the options open to it. The chairman, who was also a qualified accountant, was Tim Blake. He

began by expressing serious concern about the overestimation and then invited the board to express views freely. Gary

Howells, the operations director, said that because disclosing the error to the market would be so damaging, it might

be best to keep it a secret and hope that new reserves can be found in the near future that will make up for the

shortfall. He said that it was unlikely that this concealment would be found out as shareholders trusted WM and they

had many years of good investor relations to draw on. Vanda Monroe, the finance director, reminded the board that

the company was bound to certain standards of truthfulness and transparency by its stock market listing. She pointed

out that they were constrained by codes of governance and ethics by the stock market and that colleagues should be

aware that WM would be in technical breach of these if the incorrect estimation was concealed from investors. Finally,

Martin Chan, the human resources director, said that the error should be disclosed to the investors because he would

not want to be deceived if he were an outside investor in the company. He argued that whatever the governance codes

said and whatever the cost in terms of reputation and market value, WM should admit its error and cope with

whatever consequences arose. The WM board contains three non-executive directors and their views were also

invited.

At the preliminary results presentation some time later, one analyst, Christina Gonzales, who had become aware of

the mallerite problem, asked about internal audit and control systems, and whether they were adequate in such a

reserve-sensitive industry. WM’s chairman, Tim Blake, said that he intended to write a letter to all investors and

analysts in the light of the mallerite problem which he hoped would address some of the issues that Miss Gonzales

had raised.

Required:

(a) Define ‘transparency’ and evaluate its importance as an underlying principle in corporate governance and in

relevant and reliable financial reporting. Your answer should refer to the case as appropriate. (10 marks)

(b) The marketing director of CTC has suggested the introduction of a new toy ‘Nellie the Elephant’ for which the

following estimated information is available:

1. Sales volumes and selling prices per unit

Year ending, 31 May 2009 2010 2011

Sales units (000) 80 180 100

Selling price per unit ($) 50 50 50

2. Nellie will generate a contribution to sales ratio of 50% throughout the three year period.

3. Product specific fixed overheads during the year ending 31 May 2009 are estimated to be $1·6 million. It

is anticipated that these fixed overheads would decrease by 10% per annum during each of the years ending

31 May 2010 and 31 May 2011.

4. Capital investment amounting to $3·9 million would be required in June 2008. The investment would have

no residual value at 31 May 2011.

5. Additional working capital of $500,000 would be required in June 2008. A further $200,000 would be

required on 31 May 2009. These amounts would be recovered in full at the end of the three year period.

6. The cost of capital is expected to be 12% per annum.

Assume all cash flows (other than where stated) arise at the end of the year.

Required:

(i) Determine whether the new product is viable purely on financial grounds. (4 marks)