What factors do you think are behind these events? Do some research to find out whether there have been more such problems since this writing. Is it just American companies that are being targeted?

Grey company holds an overdue note receivable of $800,000 plus recorded accrued interest of $64,000. the effective interest rate is 8%. as the result of a court-imposed settlement on december 31, year 3, grey agreed to the following restructuring arrangement: reduced the principal obligation to $600,000.forgave the $64,000 accrued interest.extended the maturity date to december 31, year 5.annual interest of $40,000 is to be paid to grey on december 31, year 4 and year 5. the present value of the interest and principal payments to be received by grey company discounted for two years at 8% is $585,734. grey does not elect the fair value option for reporting the debt modification. on december 31, year 3, grey would recognize a valuation allowance for impaired loans of

You are chairman of the board of a successful technology firm. there is a nominal federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent, yet the effective tax rate of the typical corporation is about 12.6%. your firm has been clever with use of transfer pricing and keeping money abroad and has barely paid any taxes over the last 5 years; during this same time period, profits were $28 billion. one member of the board feels that it is un-american to use various accounting strategies in order to avoid paying taxes. others feel that these are legal loopholes and corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to minimize taxes. one board member quoted what the ceo of exxon once said: “i’m not a u.s. company and i don’t make decisions based on what’s good for the u.s.” what are the alternatives? what are your recommendations? why do you recommend this course of action?

Costco wholesale corporation operates membership warehouses selling food, appliances, consumer electronics, apparel and other household goods at 471 locations across the u.s. as well as in canada, mexico and puerto rico. as of its fiscal year-end 2005, costco had approximately 21.2 million members. selected fiscal-year information from the company's balance sheets follows. ($ millions). selected balance sheet data 2005 2004 merchandise inventories $4,015 $3,644 deferred membership income (liability) 501 454 (a) during fiscal 2005, costco collected $1,120 cash for membership fees. use the financial statement effectstemplate to record the cash collected for membership fees. (b) in 2005, costco recorded $46,347 million in merchandise costs (that is, cost of goods sold). record thistransaction in the financial statement effects template. (c) determine the value of merchandise that costco purchased during fiscal-year 2005. use the financial statementeffects template to record these merchandise purchases. assume all of costco's purchases are on credit.