White Corp Corporation has a defined pension plan and received the following reports from their pension trust for $2018$:

Pension Plan Obligations Pension Plan Assets

Beginning balance $$51,000,000$ Beginning balance $$56,000,000$

Interest Cost on obligation $4,080,000$ Actual income on plan assets $8,000,000$

Current Service Cost $15,900,000$ Contributions $13,000,000$

Actuary $($gain$)$ loss $(1,800,000)$ Benefit payments $(11,000,000)$

Benefit payments $(11,000,000)$ FV of Plan Assets Dec $3166,000,000$

FV of Obligation Dec $3158,180,000$

White$$s company records showed:

$$ White$$s average employee will receive payments $20$ years in the future and the yield on $20-$year bonds is $8\%.$

$$ Contributions and benefits were paid at the end of the year.

Required:

$1.$ What is the position of the Pension Plan at $2017$ year end?

$2.$ Prepare a pension spreadsheet $($a template has been provided on the next page$)$ to determine the values for the $2018$ journal entries.

$3.$ Prepare the journal entries for $2018$

$4.$ Illustrate that your journal entries resulted in the Dec $31,2018$ fair value being on the balance sheet.

$5.$ Has the position of the pension plan improved? What happened during the year that contributed to the current position?