Abstract This article presents information on issues related to various accounting bodies in the United States. Some of officers who were elected at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association (AAA) at Bloomington, Indiana on September 1, 1964 are Robert K. Mautz of the University of Illinois, Herbert E. Miller of Michigan State University and Wilton Anderson of Oklahoma State University. The membership of the AAA at the convention voted, upon recommendation of the executive committee, to change the dues structure of the association effective from January 1, 1965. Dues for full members are now $10.00 per year, for associate members, $3.00 per year and for foreign members, $6.50 per year. The twenty-sixth annual conference of the Institute on Accounting was held at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, on November 6, 1964. The National Association of Estate Planning Councils held its first annual meeting on September 25, 1964 in New York City. The Association's membership is made up of accountants, attorneys, life underwriters and trust officers.

Abstract Considerable variation and disagreement have characterized the accounting for, and the rationalization of, differences between financial and tax depreciation. Specifically, the writer believes that the reporting of a deferred income-tax liability and additional income-tax expense for book-tax differences in depreciation is an ad hoc solution that will not stand close theoretical analysis. A difference can be said to exist between financial depreciation and tax depreciation whenever the best depreciation for financial reporting varies from the best depreciation for income-tax purposes. For financial reporting, ideal depreciation presumably reflects the annual amounts that best reflect financial status and operating results, including their combined result in terms of the rate of earnings. One of the fundamental issues in the controversy about book-tax differences in depreciation is whether taxes payable in the future from future revenues create a liability prior to the recognition of this future revenue.

Abstract Credit balance as a liability in the balance sheet has recently become a question of greater interest. The following discussion is concerned primarily with future expenditures that are related to operations. One characteristic of liabilities to be emphasized is their relationship with assets already recognized. For proper reporting of financial position, liabilities must be matched properly with assets recognized. In many ways this matching on the balance sheet runs parallel to the matching of expenses with revenues in the income statement. Secondly, where installment sales are recognized as revenue when made, but become taxable revenue only as collected, the full amount of assets to be received from given installment sales is recognized at the time of the sales. Since the future income taxes to be paid at the time of collection are directly related to and payable out of assets already recognized, there is no question but what the deferred income tax on such receivables is a liability in the broad sense of the term.

Reviews the book "Effects of Price Level Changes on Business Income, Capital and Taxes" by Ralph Coughenour Jones.

Abstract The article presents information on the American Accounting Association's members. Canada-based Queen's University R.G.H. Smails has resigned from the position of director of the School of Commerce and Business Administration. He will continue as professor. L.G. Macmason has been designated director. Maurice Moonitz, associate dean for the last three years at the University of California, served as acting dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration during the summer. Hector Anton has proceeded on leave for the current year for the purpose of filling a position on the faculty of the University of Minnesota. Carl T. Devin of the University of Florida and R.B. Mattessich of Mount Allison University, New Brunswick, are visiting members of the faculty for the academic year 1958-59. A.B. Cason has been promoted to the rank of professor. He is serving during the current academic year as acting chairman of the Department of Business Administration as well as acting associate dean of the School of Business Administration.

Reviews the book "Financial and Administrative Accounting," by C. Aubrey Smith and Jim G. Ashburne.

Abstract This article attempts, by use of the published data, to summarize and analyze the United States Steel Corp.'s reporting of goodwill and associated elements during these eventful years. In addition to pointing out an interesting chapter in American corporate reporting, the summary perhaps directs attention to the importance of sound valuations for contributed resources and the desirability of systematic accounting for goodwill. The United States Steel Corp., as is well known, was organized by a syndicate headed by J. Pierpont Morgan. In consolidating a number of existing companies, the syndicate issued none of the bonds or shares of the new corporation for cash alone. Although the preferred and common shares were issued in amounts which resulted in a large quantity of stock discount, the legal status of the shares was materially improved by withholding from the financial statements any evidence of this discount. Apparently for this reason the beginning balance of the "Property Account" was determined residually after the assignment of par value to the securities issued and appropriate values to assets other than those included in the property account.

Abstract The development of financial reporting in the U.S. has been closely related to the development of business corporations as means of carrying on much of the industrial activity of the nation. Both of these developments have taken place largely since 1900. It appear that a definite need exists at the present time for another examination of the old idea that disclosure, which includes the presentation of all significant accounting information as accurately and informatively as possible, is the guiding objective of financial statements. The article is concerned with this idea as it relates to recent discussions regarding the purpose and scope of published income reports of corporations whose shares are widely held. The unsettled controversy between accountants favoring all-inclusive income reports and those favoring selective income reports, which exclude certain special items of gain and loss, cannot be fully understood, unless related to the question of whether disclosure is an underlying objective of corporate reporting.

Abstract The periodic determination of net income and the clear reporting of income events recognized during a period are generally granted to be fundamental objectives of corporation accounting. The consistent treatment of extraordinary income events has been termed one of the most controversial problems in this important area. Two outstanding questions concerning this problem are, first, what extraordinary income charges and credits; may or should be excluded from the determination of net income and, second, what use, if any should be made of a financial statement other than the income statement to report income items excluded from net income. For a number of years the disagreement concerning the all-inclusive standard and alternative concepts has been marked, and any further progress toward resolving the differences would undoubtedly be welcomed by accountants. The all-inclusive standard, as concerns the measurement and disclosure of income results, is a concept of comparatively long standing in accounting thought.