Ethical challenges, global company environmental concerns. Contemporary Interiors (CI) manufactures high-quality furniture in factores in North Carolina for sale to top American retailers. In 1995, CI purchased a lumber operation in Indonesia, and shifted from using American hardwoods to Indonesian ramin in its products. The ramin proved to be a cheaper alternative, and it was widely accepted by American consumers. CI management credits the early adoption of Indonesian wood for its ability to keep its North Carolina factories open when so many competitors closed their doors. Recently, however, consumers have become increasingly concerned about the sustainability of tropical woods, including ramin. CI has seen sales begin to fall, and the company was even singled out by an environmental group for boycott. It appears that a shift to more sustainable woods before year-end will be necessary, and more costly. In response to the looming increase in material costs, CEO Geoff Armstrong calls a meeting of upper management. The group generates the following ideas to address customer concerns and/or salvage company profits for the current year: a. Pay local officials in Indonesia to “certify” the ramin used by CI as sustainable. It is not certain whether the ramin would be sustainable or not. Put highly visible tags on each piece of furniture to inform consumers of the change. b. Make deep cuts in pricing through the end of the year to generate additional revenue. c. Record executive year-end bonus compensation accrued for the current year when it is paid in the next year after the December fiscal year-end. d. Reject the change in materials. Counter the bad publicity with an aggressive ad campaign showing the consumer products as “made in the USA,” since manufacturing takes place in North Carolina. e. Redesign upholstered furniture to replace ramin contained inside with less expensive recycled plastic. The change in materials would not affect the appearance or durability of the furniture. The company would market the furniture as “sustainable.” f. Pressure current customers to take early delivery of goods before the end of the year so that more revenue can be reported in this year’s financial statements. g. Begin purchasing sustainable North American hardwoods and sell the Indonesian lumber subsidiary. Initiate a “plant a tree” marketing program, by which the company will plant a tree for every piece of furniture sold. Material costs would increase 25%, and prices would be passed along to customers. h. Sell off production equipment prior to year-end. The sale would result in one-time gains that could offset the company’s lagging profits. The owned equipment could be replaced with leased equipment at a lower cost in the current year. i. Recognize sales revenues on orders received but not shipped as of the end of the year. 1. As the management accountant for Contemporary Interiors, evaluate each of the preceding items ( a–i ) in the context of the “Standards of Ethical Behavior for Practitioners of Management Accounting and Financial Management ” Figure 1-7 (page 17 ). Which of the items are in violation of these ethics standards and which are acceptable? Required 2. What should the management accountant do with regard to those items that are in violation of the ethical standards for management accountants?

Paterson Company, a U.S.-based company, manufactures and sells electronic components worldwide. Virtually all its manufacturing takes place in the United States. The company has marketing divisions throughout Europe, including France. Debbie Kishimoto, manager of this division, was hired from a competitor 3 years ago. Debbie, recently informed of a price increase in one of the major product lines, requested a meeting with Jeff Phillips, marketing vice president. Their conversation follows. Debbie: Jeff, I simply dont understand why the price of our main product has increased from 5.00 to 5.50 per unit. We negotiated an agreement earlier in the year with our manufacturing division in Philadelphia for a price of 5.00 for the entire year. I called the manager of that division. He said that the original price was still acceptablethat the increase was a directive from headquarters. Thats why I wanted to meet with you. I need some explanations. When I was hired, I was told that pricing decisions were made by the divisions. This directive interferes with this decentralized philosophy and will lower my divisions profits. Given current market conditions, there is no way we can pass on the cost increase. Profits for my division will drop at least 600,000 if this price is maintained. I think a midyear increase of this magnitude is unfair to my division. Jeff: Under normal operating conditions, headquarters would not interfere with divisional decisions. But as a company, we are having some problems. What you just told me is exactly why the price of your product has been increased. We want the profits of all our European marketing divisions to drop. Debbie: What do you mean that you want the profits to drop? That doesnt make any sense. Arent we in business to make money? Jeff: Debbie, what you lack is corporate perspective. We are in business to make money, and thats why we want European profits to decrease. Our U.S. divisions are not doing well this year. Projections show significant losses. At the same time, projections for European operations show good profitability. By increasing the cost of key products transferred to Europeto your division, for examplewe increase revenues and profits in the United States. By decreasing your profits, we avoid paying taxes in France. With losses on other U.S. operations to offset the corresponding increase in domestic profits, we avoid paying taxes in the United States as well. The net effect is a much-needed increase in our cash flow. Besides, you know how hard it is in some of these European countries to transfer out capital. This is a clean way of doing it. Debbie: Im not so sure that its clean. I cant imagine the tax laws permitting this type of scheme. There is another problem, too. You know that the companys bonus plans are tied to a divisions profits. This plan could cost all of the European managers a lot of money. Jeff: Debbie, you have no reason to worry about the effect on your bonusor on our evaluation of your performance. Corporate management has already taken steps to ensure no loss of compensation. The plan is to compute what income would have been if the old price had prevailed and base bonuses on that figure. Ill meet with the other divisional managers and explain the situation to them as well. Debbie: The bonus adjustment seems fair, although I wonder if the reasons for the drop in profits will be remembered in a couple of years when Im being considered for promotion. Anyway, I still have some strong ethical concerns about this. How does this scheme relate to the tax laws? Jeff: We will be in technical compliance with the tax laws. In the United States, Section 482 of the Internal Revenue Code governs this type of transaction. The key to this law, as well as most European laws, is evidence of an arms-length price. Since youre a distributor, we can use the resale price method to determine such a price. Essentially, the arms-length price for the transferred good is backed into by starting with the price at which you sell the product and then adjusting that price for the markup and other legitimate differences, such as tariffs and transportation. Debbie: If I were a French tax auditor, I would wonder why the markup dropped from last year to this year. Are we being good citizens and meeting the fiscal responsibilities imposed on us by each country in which we operate? Jeff: Well, a French tax auditor might wonder about the drop in markup. But, the markup is still within reason, and we can make a good argument for increased costs. In fact, weve already instructed the managers of our manufacturing divisions to legitimately reassign as many costs as they can to the European product lines. So far, they have been very successful. I think our records will support the increase that you are receiving. You really do not need to be concerned with the tax authorities. Our tax department assures me that this has been carefully researchedits unlikely that a tax audit will create any difficulties. Itll all be legal and above board. Weve done this several times in the past with total success. Required: 1. Do you think that the tax-minimization scheme described to Debbie Kishimoto is in harmony with the ethical behavior that should be displayed by top corporate executives? Why or why not? What would you do if you were Debbie? 2. Apparently, the tax department of Paterson Company has been strongly involved in developing the tax-minimization scheme. Assume that the accountants responsible for the decision are CMAs and members of the IMA, subject to the IMA standards of ethical conduct. Review the IMA standards for ethical conduct in Chapter 1. Are any of these standards being violated by the accountants in Patersons tax department? If so, identify them. What should these tax accountants do if requested to develop a questionable taxminimization scheme?

Mercury, Incorporated, produces cell phones at its plant in Texas. In recent years, the company's market share has been eroded by stiff competition from overseas. Price and product quality are the two key areas in which companies compete in this market. A year ago, the company's cell phones had been ranked low in product quality in a consumer survey. Shocked by this result, Jorge Gomez, Mercury's president, initiated an intense effort to improve product quality. Gomez set up a task force to implement a formal quality improvement program. Included on this task force were representatives from the Engineering, Marketing, Customer Service, Production, and Accounting departments. The broad representation was needed because Gomez believed that this was a companywide program and that all employees should share the responsibility for its success. After the first meeting of the task force, Holly Elsoe, manager of the Marketing Department, asked John Tran, production manager, what he thought of…

Myers Inc. manufactures biodegradable bottles. Since this is a patented method of producing environmentally-friendly plastic, they cannot use an overseas contractor. They will make the products in the United States. What criteria would you use to assess their business model? O The production expertise scale will tell if the company is ready to partake in such a venture. O The fixed costs need to be compared to other similar companies in the U.S. The standardization of the product is making it more expensive to produce, as the copyrights are implemented. O Since the product will be outsourced, the manager needs to assess the simplicity of the supply chain. Even though the manufacturing costs are high, the transportation costs will be low. O The minimum efficient scale will tell the minimum volume they need to produce to reach economies of scale. The quality of the in-house product needs to be constantly inspected, as they will not use outside sourcing.

Stark and Company is a manufacturer that sells robots predominantly in the Asian market. Times have been tough for the auto industry and Stark and Company is no different. The company is under tremendous pressure to turn a profit. Several years ago, as analysts were predicting a large downturn in the robot industry, Stark decided to purchase a smaller niche robot maker in the hopes of capturing a different segment of the consumer market and to better learn the manufacturing processes of other robot makers. Starks still operates as two separate divisions, Classic and New Age, with each division manager employing a different manufacturing philosophy. The Classic manager is concerned with low input costs and quantity in production in addition to brand recognition and robot power. The New Age manager is concerned with quality and innovation in manufacturing, fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly robots. SAC continued to suffer losses even with the addition of the New Age division.…

H-Robotic Incorporated (HRI), a world leader in the robotics industry, produces a line of industrial robots and peripheral equipment that performs many routine assembly-line tasks. However, increased competition, particularly from Japanese firms, has caused HRI's management to be concerned about the company's growth potential in the future. HRI's research and development department have been applying the industrial robot technology to develop a line of household robots. The household robot is designed to function as a maid, mainlyperforming such tasks as vacuuming floors and carpets. This effort has nowreached the stage where a decision on whether to go forward with production must be made. The engineering department has estimated that the firm would need a new manufacturing plant with the following construction schedule: The plant would require a 35-acre site, and HRI currently has an option to purchase a suitable tract of land for $2.5 million. The building construction would begin…

Osama Co. is a listed company operating in the textile industry. Osama Co’s board of directors met recently to discuss a new strategy for the business. The proposal put forward was to sell all the old plant and machinery and use this fund as well as borrow from market to purchase new plant and equipment. The new plant and machinery are more productive and meet the current standard quality required by the international buyers. It is also argued that new plant is more energy efficient and environment friendly that gives more advantage when facing international competitors. The proposal stated that the funds raised from the sale of the old plant and machinery would be used to buy the new plant and machinery. New borrowing for the balance amount will be made from local bank which offered lowest rate. Since inflation is on higher side compared to last few years so cost of borrowing is on higher side which will increase firm cost of capital. The board of directors are of the opinion…

The pre-release material is below together with some further information and the requirements of the question. Ringle Company is a very successful multi-national retail company which has been selling a large range of white goods (refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, tumble dryers) for a number of years. One year ago, it sourced a new overseas supplier of these goods who were able to provide the goods at a much lower cost due to their cheap labour rates. The overseas supplier also produces microwaves and other kitchen appliances. Ringle Company had been planning to move into the market for kitchen appliances and therefore they took the decision to commence this process by stocking these microwaves for sale to their customers. If successful, they would then consider expanding to other kitchen appliances. Ringle Co were using external hauliers for delivery of their goods and were able to offer their customers next day delivery on all their orders within the UK and a 3-day…

Osama Co. is a listed company operating in the textile industry. Osama Co’s board of directors met recently to discuss a new strategy for the business. The proposal put forward was to sell all the old plant and machinery and use this fund as well as borrow from market to purchase new plant and equipment. The new plant and machinery are more productive and meet the current standard quality required by the international buyers. It is also argued that new plant is more energy efficient and environment friendly that gives more advantage when facing international competitors. The proposal stated that the funds raised from the sale of the old plant and machinery would be used to buy the new plant and machinery. New borrowing for the balance amount will be made from local bank which offered lowest rate. Since inflation is on higher side compared to last few years so cost of borrowing is on higher side which will increase firm cost of capital. The board of directors are of the opinion…

Yardwork Tools Corp manufactures garden tools in a factory in Taneytown, Maryland. Recently, the company designed a collection of tools for professional use rather than consumer use. Management needs to make a good decision about whether to produce this line in their existing space in Maryland, where space is available or to accept an offer from a manufacturer in Taiwan. Data concerning the decision are as follows: Expected annual sales of tools (in units) 660,000 Average selling price of tools $11 Price quoted by Taiwanese company, in New Taiwanese Dollars (NTD) 27,300 Current exchange rate 9,100 NTD = $1 Variable manufacturing costs $2.85 per unit Incremental annual fixed manufacturing costs associated with the new product line $310,000 Variable selling and distribution costsª $0.50 per unit Annual fixed selling and distribution costsª $250,000 ªSelling and distribution costs are the same regardless of whether the tools…

Solution Summary: The author explains the ethical professional practice principles, which include honesty, fairness, objectivity, and responsibility.

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