Parker Co. amended its pension plan on January 2 of the current year. It also granted $600,000 of unrecognized prior service costs to its employees. The employees are all active and expect to provide 2,000 service years in the future, with 350 service years this year. What is Parker's unrecognized prior service cost amortization for the year under U.S. GAAP?

a. $600,000

b. $105,000

c. $0

d. $2,000

答案：B

Explanation

Choice "b" is correct. Under U.S. GAAP, the prior service cost is booked to other comprehensive income and then amortized to the income statement (net periodic pension cost) by assigning an equal amount to each future period of service of each employee who is active at the date of the amendment. In this problem, prior service cost will be assigned equally to each service year provided by the company's employees as follows:

$600,000 × (350/2000) = $105,000

Note that under IFRS, the prior service cost would be reported on the income statement, not in other comprehensive income, and therefore would not be amortized.

Choice "c" is incorrect. Unrecognized prior service cost must be amortized by assigning an equal amount to each future period of service of each employee who is active at the date of the amendment.

Choice "d" is incorrect. The current period amortization of Parker's prior service cost is not equal to the expected future service hours. Unrecognized prior service cost must be amortized by assigning an equal amount to each future period of service of each employee who is active at the date of the amendment, as described above.

Choice "a" is incorrect. The company would not recognized the entire prior service cost in the current period, but would instead amortize the prior service cost by assigning an equal amount to each future period of service of each employee who is active at the date of the amendment.