TIF 7-1 Expense Reimbursement Tehra Dactyl is an accountant for Skeds, Inc., a footwear and apparel company. The company's revenue and net income have increased by more than 100% over the past three years. During the same period, Tehra and her colleagues in the Accounting Department have not received a raise or salary increase. Frustrated by not receiving a raise while the company has thrived, Tehra has begun submitting expense reimbursements for personal purchases. Tehra has a good relationship with her supervisor, and he simply "signs off" on Tehra's expense reimbursements. Tehra suspects that he knows that she is submitting personal expenses for reimbursement and is "looking the other way" because Tehra has not received a raise in the past three years. Are Tehra and her supervisor acting in an ethical manner? Why? TIF 8-1 Uncollectible Accounts Receivable Bud Lighting Co. is a retailer of commercial and residential lighting products. Gowen Geter, the company's chief accountant, is in the process of making year-end adjusting entries for uncollectible accounts receivable. In recent years, the company has experienced an increase in accounts that have become uncollectible. As a result, Gowen believes that the company should increase the percentage used for estimating doubtful accounts from 2% to 4% of credit sales. This change will significantly increase bad debt expense, resulting in a drop in earnings for the first time in company history. The company president, Tim Burr, is under considerable pressure to meet earnings goals. He suggests that this is "not the right time" to change the estimate. He instructs Gowen to keep the estimate at 2%. Gowen is confident that 2% is too low, but he follows Tim's instructions. Evaluate the decision to use the lower percentage to improve earnings. Are Tim and Gowen acting in an ethical manner? Hard Bodies Co. is a fitness chain that has just completed its second year of operations. At the beginning of its first fiscal year, the company purchased fitness equipment at a cost of $600,000 and estimated that the equipment would have a useful life of 5 years and no residual value. The company uses the straight-line depreciation method. The company reported net income for the first 2 years of operations as follows: Year Net Income (Loss) 1 2 $50,000 (2,000) Mike Gambit, the company's chief financial officer (CFO), has recently run financial models to predict future net income, and he expects net losses to continue at $(2,000) per year for the next 3 years. James Steed, she president of Hard Bodies, is concerned about these predictions, as he is under pressure from the company's owner to return the company to Year 1 net income levels. If the company does not meet these goals, both he and Mike will likely be fired. Mike suggests that the company change the estimated useful life of the fitness equipment to 10 years and increase the equipment's estimated residual value to $50,000. This will reduce depreciation expense and increase net income. 1. Evaluate the decision to change the equipment's estimated useful life and estimated residual value to improve earnings. How does this change impact the usefulness of the company's net income for external decision makers? 2. If Mike and James make the change, are they acting in an ethical manner? Explain