温馨提醒！2020年ACCA学员年费缴费时间来了

正确答案：

 

When considering the shortfall
– The family’s expenditure is likely to increase as the children get older, particularly if there is a need for school fees.
– There will be a need for some cash immediately to pay for the cost of the funeral.
– It is assumed that the whole of Jane’s estate has been left to Charles such that there will be no inheritance tax on her
death.
– The shortfall may be reduced by:
(i) State benefits and tax credits.
(ii) Expenditure on non-essential items, e.g. holidays and entertainment included in the annual expenditure of
￡45,500.
(iii) The income generated by Charles if he were to return to work.
– The shortfall may be increased by additional child-care costs due to Charles being a single parent, particularly if he
returns to work full-time.
Further information required
– The level of state benefits and tax credits available to Charles.
– The current level of expenditure on non-essential items.
– The costs of child-care if Charles were to return to work.
– Details of any wills made by Charles or Jane.
– Whether Charles’ investment properties could be sold and the proceeds invested in assets with a higher annual return.
– Whether there is any value in Speak Write Ltd independent of Jane, such that the company could be sold after Jane’s
death.
Other related issues
– The couple should consider making provision for their retirement via pension contributions or some other form. of long
term investment plan.
– The couple should recognise that there would be significant financial problems if Jane were to become seriously ill. In
addition to the family’s income falling as set out above, its expenditure would probably increase.
Protection products
– Term life assurance
A qualifying life policy would pay out a tax-free lump sum on Jane’s death.
– Permanent health insurance
Would provide a regular income if Jane were unable to work due to illness.
– Critical illness insurance
Would provide a capital sum in the event of Jane being diagnosed with an insured illness.

正确答案：
(c) Activity-based management (ABM) is a method of identifying and evaluating activities that a business performs using
activity-based costing to carry out a value chain analysis or a re-engineering initiative to improve strategic and operational
decisions in an organisation. Activity-based costing establishes relationships between overhead costs and activities so that
overhead costs can be more precisely allocated to products, services, or customer segments. Activity-based management
focuses on managing activities to reduce costs and improve customer value.
Kaplan and Cooper (1998) divide ABM into operational ABM and strategic ABM:
Operational ABM is about ‘doing things right’, using ABC information to improve efficiency. Those activities which add value
to the product can be identified and improved. Activities that don’t add value are the ones that need to be reduced to cut costs
without reducing product value.
Strategic ABM is about ‘doing the right things’, using ABC information to decide which products to develop and which
activities to use. This can also be used for customer profitability analysis, identifying which customers are the most profitable
and focusing on them more.
A risk with ABM is that some activities have an implicit value, not necessarily reflected in a financial value added to any
product. For instance a particularly pleasant workplace can help attract and retain the best staff, but may not be identified as
adding value in operational ABM. A customer that represents a loss based on committed activities, but that opens up leads
in a new market, may be identified as a low value customer by a strategic ABM process.
ABM can give middle managers an understanding of costs to other teams to help them make decisions that benefit the whole
organisation, not just their activities’ bottom line.

正确答案：
(b) Property is sometimes sold with a degree of continuing involvement by the seller so that the risks and rewards of ownership
have not been transferred. The nature and extent of the buyer’s involvement will determine how the transaction is accounted
for. The substance of the transaction is determined by looking at the transaction as a whole and IAS18 ‘Revenue’ requires
this by stating that where two or more transactions are linked, they should be treated as a single transaction in order to
understand the commercial effect (IAS18 paragraph 13). In the case of the sale of the hotel, theme park and casino, Norman
should not recognise a sale as the company continues to enjoy substantially all of the risks and rewards of the businesses,
and still operates and manages them. Additionally the residual interest in the business reverts back to Norman. Also Norman
has guaranteed the income level for the purchaser as the minimum payment to Conquest will be $15 million a year. The
transaction is in substance a financing arrangement and the proceeds should be treated as a loan and the payment of profits
as interest.
The principles of IAS18 and IFRIC13 ‘Customer Loyalty Programmes’ require that revenue in respect of each separate
component of a transaction is measured at its fair value. Where vouchers are issued as part of a sales transaction and are
redeemable against future purchases, revenue should be reported at the amount of the consideration received/receivable less
the voucher’s fair value. In substance, the customer is purchasing both goods or services and a voucher. The fair value of the
voucher is determined by reference to the value to the holder and not the cost to the issuer. Factors to be taken into account
when estimating the fair value, would be the discount the customer obtains, the percentage of vouchers that would be
redeemed, and the time value of money. As only one in five vouchers are redeemed, then effectively the hotel has sold goods
worth ($300 + $4) million, i.e. $304 million for a consideration of $300 million. Thus allocating the discount between the
two elements would mean that (300 ÷ 304 x $300m) i.e. $296·1 million will be allocated to the room sales and the balance
of $3·9 million to the vouchers. The deferred portion of the proceeds is only recognised when the obligations are fulfilled.
The recognition of government grants is covered by IAS20 ‘Accounting for government grants and disclosure of government
assistance’. The accruals concept is used by the standard to match the grant received with the related costs. The relationship
between the grant and the related expenditure is the key to establishing the accounting treatment. Grants should not be
recognised until there is reasonable assurance that the company can comply with the conditions relating to their receipt and
the grant will be received. Provision should be made if it appears that the grant may have to be repaid.
There may be difficulties of matching costs and revenues when the terms of the grant do not specify precisely the expense
towards which the grant contributes. In this case the grant appears to relate to both the building of hotels and the creation of
employment. However, if the grant was related to revenue expenditure, then the terms would have been related to payroll or
a fixed amount per job created. Hence it would appear that the grant is capital based and should be matched against the
depreciation of the hotels by using a deferred income approach or deducting the grant from the carrying value of the asset
(IAS20). Additionally the grant is only to be repaid if the cost of the hotel is less than $500 million which itself would seem
to indicate that the grant is capital based. If the company feels that the cost will not reach $500 million, a provision should
be made for the estimated liability if the grant has been recognised.

正确答案：
(b) The major benefits of pursuing a policy of internal development that may accrue to Taliesin Ltd are as follows:
– By confining their activities to its internal environment the company avoids the need to manage the integration of
businesses which is necessitated by an acquisition. Management teams, when considering the acquisition of another
organisation, very often underestimate the costs of integration.
– There is no need for the board of directors of Taliesin Ltd to familiarise itself with different organisational and national
cultures, values etc, thereby avoiding many potential problems.
– The board of directors of Taliesin Ltd is better able to control the activities of the business and the need for more complex
supply chains and strategic alliances with foreign organisations is rendered unnecessary.
– All investments are made at market price whereas if the board of directors was to attempt to grow the business
acquisition then significant outlays would probably be made in respect of purchased goodwill.
– As the organisation develops and expands, staff are provided with development and learning activities that may
precipitate an increase in the level of their commitment to the organisation.