Question
CASE: BIRD'S EYE VIEW LTD. Macarthur Graham was a retired military pilot who had established BirdsEyeViewLtd., an aerial touring company that flew over the Niagara
CASE:
BIRD'S EYE VIEW LTD.
Macarthur Graham was a retired military pilot who had established BirdsEyeViewLtd., an aerial touring company that flew over the Niagara Escarpment. Graham had just completed his ninth fiscal year of operations (ending August 31, 2012), and needed to account for all the long-lived asset transactions that had occurred during the past fiscalyear.
HOT AIR BALLOON
For the past eight years, Graham had offered tours from his hot air balloon, which he had purchased for $120,000 when he opened his business. There was now $68,344 of accumulated depreciation. The hot air balloon had an estimated useful life of 10 years and a residual value of $15,000, and it was depreciated using the declining-balance method.
Graham had enjoyed the balloon rides as part of his retirement activities, but he had also been working on obtaining a helicopter pilots licence. He had noticed that helicopter rides, in general, were more popular, and he thought the heated cabin in the helicopter would contribute to more stable sales year-round. For this reason, on February 2, 2012, he traded in his hot air balloon towards the purchase of a helicopter.
HELICOPTER
The cost of a used helicopter was still significantly more than that of the hot air balloon. Jeff Meyers, a retiring contract delivery provider for a mining operation, agreed to sell his helicopter to Graham for a price of $840,000 in exchange for the hot air balloon and $800,000 cash. The helicopter had 2,000 flight hours of life remaining and no residual value. Graham used the helicopter for 40 hours during the remainder of the year.
STORAGE FACILITY
On September 1, 2011, Graham negotiated to purchase the storage facility he had been renting previously for $86,000 cash. The facility would be depreciated using the straight-line method and had an expected useful life of 20 years, with an estimated residual value of $25,200. At the end of fiscal 2012, the building had an appraisal value of $78,600.
BUS
Graham had also purchased a used bus to transport people from Owen Sound to the air strip, since the Niagara Escarpment was a popular vacation spot for Owen Sound residents. The bus was purchased for $70,000 on September 1, 2008, and had an estimated residual value of $5,000 and a useful life of four years. At the beginning of the fiscal year, the bus had accumulated depreciation of $61,250. Graham used the double-diminishing-balance method to depreciate the bus.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
In anticipation of possibly purchasing a helicopter, Graham had commissioned a family friend to design a camera that he could mount on the bottom of the chopper. Graham envisioned this camera being controllablefromatablet,whichcustomerscouldusetotakepicturesduringtheflight.Grahamcouldthen sell the pictures to the customers after the flight concluded. In addition, Graham thought he could sell the designforthecameraandproducemoreunitstoselltofellowpilotsinotherregions.
He paid the designer $500 per month to work on the project, starting January 5, 2012. On July 3, 2012, Graham received a call from the designer saying that he had solved the majority of the preliminary research problems and the two decided to start development. They determined that these costs met the criteria for development. The part-time designer estimated that development would not be completed until sometime next fiscal year.
Required:
As Macarthur Graham, working asset by asset, post all required transactions for the financial year ending August 31, 2012.
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