ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
1. Where there is evidence that the utility of goods to be disposed of in the ordinary course of
2. The usual basis for carrying forward the inventory to the next period is cost. Departure from cost is
required; however, when the utility of the goods included in the inventory is less than their cost,
this loss in utility should be recognized as a loss of the current period, the period in which it
occurred. Furthermore, the subsequent period should be charged for goods at an amount that
measures their expected contribution to that period. In other words, the subsequent period should
The arguments against the use of the lower-of-cost-or-net realizable value method of valuing
inventories include the following:
(a) The method requires the reporting of estimated losses (all or a portion of the excess of actual
cost over net realizable value) as definite income charges even though the losses have not
been sustained to date and may never be sustained. Under a consistent criterion of
realization, a drop in net realizable value below original cost is no more a sustained loss than
a rise above cost is a realized gain.
(b) A price shrinkage is brought into the income statement before the loss has been sustained
3. The lower-of-cost-or-net realizable value rule may be applied directly to each item or to the total of
the inventory (or in some cases, to the total of the components of each major category). The
method should be the one that most clearly reflects income. The most common practice is to price