Negative Goodwill

Hi Guys,

I'm a bit confused about how you treat negative goodwill in the Consolidated Financial Statements.

If the fair value of the net assets acquired exceed the cost of the investment by say $12,000 and therefore the negative goodwill is $12,000

Is it correct that the negative goodwill is reduced to zero in the consolidated statement of financial position and in the consolidated Statement of comprehensive income you ADD this negative goodwill element under the heading gain from bargain purchase?

Back when I did previous examinations under UK accounting standards - FRS 10 - I am almost positive that this negative goodwill element was recorded at its negative amount in the balance sheet, and any negative goodwill was deducted in the income statement.

If I was to assume that we were accounting in accordance with IFRS/ IAS - would the former be the correct treatment?

I did a search on google and a lot of people seem to think that negative goodwill is a good thing?

Any help here would be really, really appreciated!!

Many thanks!!