Disclosure of fully amortised goodwill help please

Gem7321

External accountants have prepared accounts under FRSSE and goodwill has been fully amortised for many years - it is relating to the purchase of the assets of a company some 20-30 years ago.

Is the fully amortised goodwill disclosure still required in the notes to the accounts? The directors feel that the goodwill has no reflection on the business today and are concerned that the note will still be sat there in another 30 years time.

And, if it should still be disclosed, should the accounting policy be shown?

Appreciate your comments... Thanks!

Gem7321

Anyone? :001_smile:

Or can anyone point me in the right direction to find out?

paulstafford

The Directors should tell the accountants to remove the policy. If there is no goodwill in the balance sheet any more why should their be a policy note?

The Directors should ask them to quote the relevant paragraph in the Frsse to justify the continuing inclusion. I couldn't find anything

Steve Collings

Under UK GAAP you only need to disclose 'critical' accounting policies - i.e. those which are material. As the NBV of goodwill is zero and has been written off for a number of years there isn't really much point in having an accounting policy for it. It's a bit like having a half-page accounting policy for assets under HP when the company doesn't acquire assets under HP.

Kind regards
Steve

Steve Collings

Gem7321 wrote: »

Is the fully amortised goodwill disclosure still required in the notes to the accounts? The directors feel that the goodwill has no reflection on the business today and are concerned that the note will still be sat there in another 30 years time.

You could also ask the accountants to simply dispose of the goodwill by reversing journals i.e. CR cost/disposal, DR accumulated amortisation/elimination on disposal so there is no goodwill note at all going forward.