Bioscience Company: Accounting for Idle Plant Assets

ABSTRACT: Bioscience Company and its auditors have been in discussions with the SEC concerning the accounting for its long-lived assets. Among the issues being discussed is the company’s discontinuation of depreciation on productive assets that it had used previously, but it was not currently using. The case permits a technical examination of depreciation and impairment accounting issues with consideration of the FASB’s asset/liability measurement approach, fair value accounting, use of the FASB Codification, and comparisons to International Financial Reporting Standards. The case requirements are divided into basic requirements, which would be appropriate for intermediate level students; and advanced requirements, which would be more appropriate for accounting seniors, as well as M.B.A. and fifth-year accounting students.