The straight line

We are seeing more use of non-qualified patronage from the regional cooperatives. Treatment of these allocations varies from client to client, firm to firm, etc. Even our decision may change as we see the regional indicate or demonstrate they intend to revolve the non-qualified patronage. For example, CoBank specifically indicates they have no intention of...

Government entities have been providing pension benefits to their employees for many years. The promise that pension benefit payments will be made to employees when they retire creates an accounting liability for the governmental entity. Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement No. 68 requires the pension liability to be reported in the financial statements of governments...

Each year, Gardiner Thomsen CPAs offer two “Daniel Gardiner Memorial” scholarships in honor of my dad, founder of Gardiner Thomsen. The scholarship is awarded to this year’s graduates from Waukee High School whom plan to attend a post-secondary school and pursue a degree in accounting. The two candidates will each receive a scholarship in the amount of...

Accounting for mergers under the old accounting rules wasrelatively straightforward. To form the combined entity, the book values of the acquiring and acquired credit unions were added together. Beginning in January 2009, this “pooling of interests” accounting was replaced with the more complex “purchase accounting.” Under the purchase accounting rules, the acquired credit union and...

On April 7th, 2015, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) unveiled new accounting standards updates. One notable update is the modification to debt issuance costs. This new accounting treatment, as part of the Board’s Simplification Initiative, is aimed at reducing costs and complexities and improving the usefulness of information provided to financial statement users. This...

This happens more frequently than you may be aware of — when you receive your business or personal mail and there is a check from the IRS or your state taxing agency. Great, except you were not expecting a refund. The common reaction is to deposit that check into your bank account. However, if you...