In late 1962, the U.S. Senate Antitrust and Monopoly subcommittee announced its intention of examining the antitrust implications of intracompany pricing. The issue was raised by the Senate Small Business Committee, which charged that pricing agreements between two units of a large corporation are immune to the anti-trust laws while an identical agreement between two small business firms is forbidden. The decision to price goods transferred internally between operating divisions of a company may appear to be one that should be determined by organizational and accounting considerations alone. The fact is, however, that there are legal implications that must be taken into account. The use of intracompany pricing and the method employed may be cited by the Government in the event that anti-trust proceedings are carried out against the corporation. The method used may also raise questions as to the company's compliance with state unfair practices acts. For those companies which have foreign subsidiaries, intracompany pricing may raise problems under foreign customs and tariff laws.

There are two basic approaches to the teaching of accounting fundamentals. One, using the deductive method of reasoning, introduces first statements in the hope that an understanding of the end product of accounting will capture the students' interest and broaden their comprehension of the subject. It is also hoped that it will permit them to appreciate reasons and the need for the detailed procedures. The other approach, the inductive, begins with the account and works forward in a logical manner through the accounting procedures to statements. Many texts have been written using one or the other of these two approaches but it appears that the statement approach has gained the widest acceptance in the past decade. The reason for its popularity is the belief that it gives students an overall grasp of the subject more quickly. Some may question this conclusion, but all will agree that the goal of an early understanding of the complete picture of the accounting procedures is desirable.