For the year ended December 31, 2012, Stirling Farms Limited, a private company, reported a profit of

Question:

For the year ended December 31, 2012, Stirling Farms Limited, a private company, reported a profit of $150,000. The company declared dividends of $90,000 and paid $80,000 of these dividends during the year.
(a) Prepare a statement of retained earnings for the year, assuming the balance in Retained Earnings on January 1, 2012, was $490,000.
(b) How might this statement change if Stirling Farms were a publicly traded company?