CHAPTER

14 Long-Term Liabilities

Principles of
Accounting

12e

Needles
Powers
Crosson

©human/iStockphoto
Concepts Underlying Long-Term Liabilities

▪ Long-term liabilities are debts and obligations that a company

expects to satisfy in more than one year or beyond its normal
operating cycle, whichever is longer.
– Generally accepted accounting principles require that long-term
liabilities be recognized and recorded when an obligation occurs
even though the obligation may not be due for many years.
– Long-term liabilities are generally valued at the amount of money
needed to pay the debt or at the fair market value of the goods
or services to be delivered.
– A liability is classified as long-term when it is due beyond one year
or beyond the normal operating cycle.
– Because of the complex nature of many long-term liabilities,
extensive disclosure in the notes to the financial statements are
often required.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Types of Long-Term Debt

▪ Bond payable—the most common type of long-term debt;

a more complex financial instrument than a note; usually
involves debt to many creditors
▪ Note payable—a promissory note that represents a loan
from a bank or other creditor
▪ Mortgage—a long-term debt secured by real property;
usually paid in equal monthly installments; each payment
includes interest on the debt and a reduction in the debt

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Other Long-Term Obligations

▪ Long-term leases—When a lease has a term that corresponds closely

to the life of the asset and, thus, is more like a purchase of an asset
than a shorter-term lease, it is called a capital lease.
▪ Pension liabilities—arise from contracts that require a company to
make payments to its employees have they retire.
▪ Other post-retirement benefits—arise from contracts that require a
company to provide medical and other benefits to its employees after
they retire.
▪ Deferred income taxes—result from using different accounting
methods to calculate income taxes on the income statement and income
tax liability on the income tax return; this is considered a liability
because these taxes will eventually have to be paid.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The Nature of Bonds

▪ A bond is a security, usually long-term, representing money that a

corporation borrows from the investing public.
– A bond entails a promise to repay the amount borrowed, called
the principal, on a specified date and to pay interest at a
specified rate at specified times, usually semiannually.
– When a public corporation decides to issue bonds, it must receive
approval from the SEC to borrow the funds. The SEC reviews the
corporation’s financial health and the specific terms of the bond
indenture, which is a contract that defines the rights, privileges,
and limitations of the bondholders, including such things as the
maturity date, interest payment dates, and the interest rate.
– As evidence of debt to the bondholders, the corporation provides
each of them with a bond certificate.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Bond Issue: Prices and Interest Rates

▪ A bond issue is the total value of bonds issued at

one time.
– Prices of bonds are stated in terms of a percentage of
the face value, or principal, of the bonds.
▪ A bond issue quoted at 103 ½ means that a $1,000 bond
costs $1,035 ($1,000 X 1.035).
▪ When a bond sells at exactly 100, it is said to sell at face
value (or par value).
▪ A $1,000 bond quoted at 87.62 would be selling at a
discount and would cost the buyer $876.20

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Bond Issue: Prices and Interest Rates

▪ The face interest rate is the fixed rate of interest paid to

bondholders based on the face value of the bonds.
▪ The market interest rate (or effective interest rate) is the
rate of interest paid in the market on bonds of similar risk.
– The market interest rate fluctuates daily. This fluctuation may
cause bonds to sell at either a discount or a premium.
▪ A discount equals the excess of the face value over the issue price. The issue
price will be less than the face value when the market interest rate is higher
than the face interest rate.
▪ A premium equals the excess of the issue price over the face value. The issue
price will be more than the face value when the market interest rate is lower
than the face interest rate.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Characteristics of Bonds
(slide 1 of 2)

▪ Unsecured bonds (or debenture bonds) are issued on the

basis of a corporation’s general credit.
▪ Secured bonds carry a pledge of certain corporate assets
as a guarantee of repayment.
▪ When all bonds of an issue mature at the same time, they
are called term bonds.
▪ When the bonds of an issue mature on different dates,
they are called serial bonds.
▪ Callable bonds give the issuer the right to buy back and
retire the bonds before maturity at a specified call price,
which is usually above face value.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Characteristics of Bonds
(slide 2 of 2)

– When a company retires a bond issue before its maturity date, it is

called early extinguishment of debt.
▪ Convertible bonds allow the bondholder to exchange a
bond for a specified number of shares of common stock.
▪ Registered bonds are issued in the names of the
bondholders. The issuing organization keeps a record of
the bondholders’ names and addresses and pays them
interest by check.
▪ Coupon bonds are not registered with the organization.
Instead, they bear coupons that the bondholder removes
on the interest payment dates and presents at a bank for
collection.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Using Present Value to Value a Bond

▪ A bond’s value is determined by summing the following

two present value amounts:
– a series of fixed interest payments
– a single payment at maturity
▪ The amount of interest a bond pays is fixed over its life.
▪ The market interest rate varies from day to day and is the
rate used to determine the bond’s present value.
– Thus, the amount investors are willing to pay for a bond
varies because the bond’s present value changes as the
market interest rate changes.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Using Present Value to Value a $20,000,
9 Percent, Five-Year Bond

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Amortizing a Bond Discount
(slide 1 of 2)

▪ The bond discount affects interest expense each year and

should be amortized over the life of the bond issue.
– To have each year’s interest expense reflect the market interest
rate, the discount must be allocated over the remaining life of the
bonds as an increase in the interest expense each period. Thus,
interest expense for each period will exceed the actual payment
of interest by the amount of the bond discount amortized over the
period. This process is called amortization of the bond discount.
– In this way, the unamortized bond discount will decrease gradually
over time, and the carrying value of the bond issue (face value less
unamortized discount) will increase gradually. By the maturity
date, the carrying value of the bond issue will equal its face value,
and the unamortized bond discount will be zero.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Amortizing a Bond Discount
(slide 2 of 2)

- The straight-line method equalizes amortization of a bond

discount for each interest period in the life of the bonds.
- The effective interest method applies a constant interest rate to
the carrying value of the bonds at the beginning of each interest
period. This constant rate is the market rate (i.e., effective rate) at
the time the bonds were issued. The amount amortized each period
is the difference between the interest computed by using the
market rate and the actual interest paid to bondholders.
– Zero coupon bonds do not require periodic interest payments.
They are issued at a large discount because the only interest the
buyer earns or the issuer pays is the discount.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Amortizing a Bond Premium

▪ Like a discount, a bond premium must be amortized over

the life of the bonds so that it can be matched to its effects
on interest expense during that period.
– The premium is in effect a reduction, in advance, of the total
interest paid on the bonds over the life of the bond issue.
– Under the straight-line method, the bond premium is spread evenly
over the life of the bond issue.
– With the effective interest method, the interest expense decreases
slightly each period because the amount of the bond premium
amortized increases slightly. This occurs because a fixed rate is
applied each period to the gradually decreasing carrying value.
This rate is based on the actual market rate at the time of the
bond issue.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Retirement and Conversion of Bonds

▪ Two ways a company can reduce its bond debt are

by:
– Retiring the bonds
▪ Retiring a bond issue before its maturity date can be to a company’s
advantage. For example, when interest rates drop, many companies
refinance their bonds at the lower rate.
▪ Bonds may be retired either by calling the bonds or by buying them
back from bondholders on the open market.
– Converting the bonds into common stock
▪ When a bondholder converts bonds to common stock, the company
records the common stock at the carrying value of the bonds.
▪ The bond liability and the unamortized discount or premium are
written off the books. For this reason, no gain or loss on the
transaction is recorded.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Sale of Bonds Between Interest Dates

▪ When corporations issue bonds between interest payment

dates, they generally collect from the investors the interest
that would have accrued for the partial period preceding
the issue date.
– At the end of the first interest period, they pay the interest for the
entire period. In other words, the interest collected when bonds are
sold is returned to investors on the next interest payment date.
– There are two reasons for this procedure:
▪ It saves on the bookkeeping costs that would be required if the interest due
each bondholder had to be computed for a different time period.
▪ When accrued interest is collected in advance, the amount is subtracted from
the full interest paid on the interest payment date, and the resulting interest
expense represents the amount for the time the money was borrowed.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Year-End Accrual of Bond Interest Expense

▪ Bond interest payment dates rarely correspond

with a company’s fiscal year.
– Therefore, an adjustment must be made to accrue the
interest expense on the bonds from the last interest
payment date to the end of the fiscal year.
– In addition, any discount or premium on the bonds must
be amortized for the partial period.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Long-Term Leases

▪ A company can obtain an operating asset by:

– Borrowing money and buying the asset
– Renting the asset on a short-term lease (called an operating lease)
▪ The risks of ownership of the asset remain with the lessor (the owner), and
lease is shorter than the asset’s useful life.
– Obtaining the asset on a long-term lease
▪ Accounting standards require that a long-term lease be treated as a capital
lease when it meets all of the following conditions:
– It cannot be canceled.
– Its duration is about the same as the useful life of the asset.
– It stipulates that the lessee has the option to buy the asset at a nominal
price at the end of the lease.
▪ Structuring long-term leases in such a way that they do not appear as
liabilities on the balance sheet is called off-balance-sheet financing.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Pension Liabilities

▪ A pension plan is a contract that requires a company to pay benefits

to its employees after they retire.
– The contributions from employer and employees are usually paid
into a pension fund, which is invested on behalf of the employees.
– There are two kinds of pension plans:
▪ Defined contribution plan—The employer makes a fixed annual
contribution, usually a percentage of the employee’s gross pay.
Retirement payments vary depending on how much the employee’s
retirement account earns.
▪ Defined benefit plan—The employer contributes an amount annually
to fund estimated future pension liability.
– Employers whose pension plans do not have sufficient assets to cover the
present value of their pension obligations must record the amount of the
shortfall as a liability.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Evaluating the Decision to Issue
Long-Term Debt

▪ Issuing common stock has two advantages over issuing long-term debt:
– Permanent financing—Common stock does not have to be paid back.
– Dividend payment is optional.
▪ Issuing long-term debt, however, has the following advantages:
– Common stockholders do not relinquish any of their control over the company
because bondholders and creditors do not have voting rights.
– The interest on debt is tax-deductible, whereas dividends are not.
– If a corporation earns more from the funds it raises by incurring long-term debt
than it pays in interest on the debt, the excess will increase its earnings for the
stockholders. This concept is called financial leverage.
▪ Financial leverage is advantageous as long as a company is able to make
timely interest payments and repay the debt at maturity.
▪ Because failure to do so can force a company into bankruptcy, a company
must assess the financial risk involved.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Debt to Equity Ratio

▪ To assess how much debt to carry, managers compute

the debt to equity ratio, which shows the amount of
debt a company carries in relation to its stockholders’
equity. The higher this ratio, the greater the financial
risk.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Interest Coverage Ratio

▪ The interest coverage ratio measures the degree of

protection a company has from default on interest
payments. The lower the ratio, the greater the financial
risk.

©2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.