Abstract This article focuses on the subject income tax allocation. The first important pronouncement on this subject was made in 1944 by the Committee on Accounting Procedure of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The most convincing case for income tax allocation rests upon its proper matching of expense with revenue, the allocation of income tax expense among periods in relation to the reported net income rather than the taxable income. While the income statement does report the results of past operations, its utility to the reader depends primarily upon its validity as a basis for appraising the profitability of, or planning the control of-future operations. The reduction in income tax which results from additional depreciation deductions for tax purposes, in excess of depreciation recorded in the accounts, should not, be considered an immediate saving in expense to be reflected in current income. It may be noted in passing that in the area of public utility rate-making the recognition of deferred credits to income tax expense is currently a burning issue. Where public utility companies use declining amount depreciation for tax purposes only, the failure of commissions to recognize such deferred credits and to grant some return thereon for rate purposes results in a sort of government subsidy to consumers of public utility services.

Abstract The author presents a report on the American Accounting Association activities based on a partly delivered speech by the president of the Association as of April 1956. The author provides statistics on member participation in the Association, mentioning that many members participate in more than one activity. He explains the activities of officers and committees with an example, highlighting the fact that each officer or committee views the Association primarily in terms of its field. He discusses the joint education committee and their chairmen, who considers his committee to be the most important and their achievements in their fields. The author throws light upon the representation of the Association by its president and other members and its cooperative relationship with other accounting organizations. He briefly mentions the annual conventions and annual reports in the journal "The Accounting Review." He also discusses the question of increasing membership for the Association.

Abstract This article discusses the background of the price level research project. The U.S. Committee on Accounting Concepts and Standards, in 1951, issued a very excellent statement of the problem of the changing price levels and suggested one approach to its solution. In its statement' the Committee poses three questions: First, is modification of the conventional accounting approach to net income determination to give explicit recognition to changes in the value of the dollar a desirable development? Secondly, if so, what methods are most appropriate for measuring variations in the value of the dollar and for giving effects to such variations in financial reports?and third if such modification is desirable, how is disclosure best to be accomplished? One of the proposed solution to the problem include that in the measurement of profit, depreciation of fixed assets should be based on the current replacement cost and not on the original or historical cost. The practical application of this principle is not insuperably difficult. Similarly, there have been proposed many answers to the questions above question and these have been discussed in the article.

Abstract Income, as ordinarily computed and reported, arises primarily from two related but to some extent independent sources. There is the margin between selling price and current cost of acquisition and setting-the cost at the time of the sale. There is the so called "gain" or "loss" arising from the change in price between the time of acquisition and the time of sale, or between acquisition and consumption. This has been called "price profit," or "price loss," or "market profit" or "market loss." The effect of changing price levels upon periodic income has created a problem that accountants should solve now. If it is at all possible, action should be taken before the issuance of the 1948 annual corporate reports. The problem is so important that its solution cannot be deferred until a stable price level would make it practicable for business as a whole to make the change at the same time. Most of the methods used to determine cost of goods sold on a current cost basis do not yield accurate results because not all of the elements of cost are so computed.

Abstract This article focuses on various educational and ethical issue in accounting education and training. This article is concerned only with the education of qualified accountants, public and private, rather than the technical training of bookkeepers, clerks, and other routine workers due to the belief that the training of these routine workers is an important problem, but one entirely separate from that of the broad education of an accountant. Based on opinions of various accountancy firms of New York State, it is suggested that the accountant should be college educated and trained. Supposedly the widest variation in this belief would occur with respect to the relative emphasis that should be placed on cultural education, broad business training and technical accounting training. The author reports that many public-accounting firms give preference to graduates from a four-year cultural course over graduates from business and accounting courses which are deficient in cultural training. He suggests that the accounting courses proper should emphasize fundamental principles and theory, and managerial uses of accounting information, rather than bookkeeping procedure, routines and technique.

Abstract In the last decade, the point of view and the relative emphasis upon various phase of problems related to accounting practice for lawyers have shifted greatly. In 1930, before the American Law School Association, it was necessary to present evidence that lawyers needed and wanted accounting training. It is no longer necessary to prove that lawyers need some training in accounting. Reason for that depends upon the general relationship between law and accounting and the bounds and limits of the two professions. In spite of the fact that the two professions are fundamentally dissimilar, there are many situations which involve mixed questions of accounting facts and law. Not only do the courts adopt and lend sanction to accounting principles as exemplified in accounting practice; the reverse is equally true-that the law, and administrative bodies created by the law, themselves in turn influence materially the development of accounting principles and practice. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has set forth formally and informally a number of "requirements" for registrants, and is daily rendering "decisions" on disputed points of accounting practice.

Abstract Accounting principles have long served as nonlegal precedents for statutory legislation and court decisions on financial and business matters. The legally trained accountant is in a peculiarly strategic position to exercise his influence in hastening this evolutionary process. By so doing he performs a distinctive social service, for many of the inequities referred to earlier will disappear as still more fundamental accounting principles are embodied in formal legislation and legal precedent. The problem of the relations existing between the lawyer and the accountant may be most briefly described by the phrase "cooperation versus competition." The literature of both fields contains voluminous exhortation to the effect that neither accountant nor lawyer should go beyond his professional capabilities. The regular law courses required of all business students provide the accounting student with a certain amount of legal training appropriate to his particular needs. This training is supplemented, of course, in some of the accounting courses, where certain types of legal problems must of necessity be considered.

Reviews the book "Business Machines," by Perley Morse.

Abstract A survey of current accounting practice indicates rather conclusively that a great majority of bookkeeping and accounting operations are performed with the aid of various types of mechanical equipment, commonly known as accounting machines. Broadly speaking, the term accounting machine. should include not only bookkeeping, analysis and tabulating machines, but also adding and calculating machines, cash registers, etc. Other office machines with important accounting applications, such as addressing machines and duplicating equipment, may also be included. Thus interpreted, the field covered is a very extensive one. The increasing volume of business transactions, the complexity of business organization, the growing necessity for delegation of responsibility and control all these factors have increased the dependence of the business man upon records and reports. Cost is an important factor in the preparation of such records and reports, hence the extent to which the necessary accounting and other clerical operations can be performed by mechanical means influences greatly the degree and type of managerial control which can be efficiently and economically exercised.

Abstract This article presents some problems prepared by the Board of Examiners of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, which were presented as the second half of the examination in accounting practice on November 7, 1957. The candidates were required to solve problem 1 and any three of the remaining four problems. The total weight assigned to this section of the examination was 50 points and the examiners point out that the suggested time allowances are approximately proportional to the point value of the various problems. The suggested time allowances for the problems were as follows: Problem 1, 30 to 45 minutes; any three of the remaining four problems, 150 to 225 minutes. The problem 1 asked the students to prepare a work sheet showing details of the computation of the corporate Federal income tax for the fiscal year ended May 31, 1957 of Taxpayer Manufacturing Corp. In another problem, the trial balance sheet of Pacific Import Co. has been provided to students and they were asked to prepare a columnar worksheet for the company and its branch with columns for "Trial balance," "Adjustments and eliminations" and "Branch income statement."