How to account for the trade-in of home appliances?

The process of home appliance trade-in involves five accounting subjects, namely, sales enterprises, recycling enterprises, dismantling enterprises, purchasers, and the government, and involves a wide range of accounting operations, with many contents, a large number, and high difficulty, such as the accounting treatment of the normal sales business, and the recognition and measurement of the price subsidy and freight subsidy. Below we are divided into different accounting subjects to elaborate the accounting treatment of trade-in business.

Sales enterprises

In essence, the "Home Appliances Trade-in Implementation Measures" (hereinafter referred to as "the Measures") can be simply summarized as "the government to pay, the buyer to pay less". Sales enterprises are not directly subsidized by the Measures, but only the reviewer, advancer and indirect beneficiary of the Measures. After obtaining the price subsidy from the government, the selling enterprise did not increase its income from a single sale, but only recovered the price that should have been charged to the buyer. Therefore, the price subsidy obtained by the sales enterprise is essentially the income from the sale of goods, not a monetary asset obtained from the government without compensation, and cannot be regarded as a government subsidy.

In summary, the sales enterprise's accounting treatment is as follows: sales of goods, according to the actual price charged to the buyer, debit "cash on hand" or "bank deposits"; according to the subsidy collected from the government, debit According to the amount of subsidies received from the government, debit "Accounts Receivable"; according to the determined amount of income, credit "Revenue from Main Business"; according to the amount of value-added tax receivable, credit "Taxes Payable ---". According to the amount of VAT to be collected, credit "VAT payable (output tax)"; to collect subsidies from the government, debit "bank deposits" and credit "accounts receivable". At the same time, in the accounts receivable account under the "subsidy receivable - home appliance trade-in" line item, which is conducive to the enterprise to understand how much sales of home appliances, how much subsidy funds from the government, and so on.

Selling enterprises will treat the subsidy funds as their main business income, which will be included in the current income tax amount and pay the enterprise income tax, so there is no difference between tax and accounting.

Recycling enterprises

Under normal circumstances, recycling enterprises recycle old home appliances and re-sell them, and need to bear the freight costs themselves. The Measures stipulate that recycling enterprises may obtain freight subsidies from dismantling enterprises, which originate from the government. Therefore, the freight subsidy is a monetary asset acquired by the recycling enterprise from the government at no cost, and should be treated as a government subsidy and included in subsidy income or non-operating income. The point of recognition of the above subsidy income is not when the old appliances are recovered, but when the recycling enterprise sells the old appliances to the dismantling enterprise and obtains the approval of the dismantling enterprise.

Government subsidies are not operating income, and their size or amount is not directly related to the operating activities of the enterprise. Therefore, the inclusion of government subsidies in the current period will result in an increase in the net profit after tax of the enterprise and mislead the users of financial accounting reports. In order to avoid the above situation, Article 10 of ASBE No. 16 - Government Subsidies stipulates that "An enterprise shall disclose in the notes the following information related to government subsidies: the type and amount of government subsidies; the amount of government subsidies recognized in profit or loss of the current period; the amount of government subsidies returned during the current period; and the reasons for the return of such subsidies". and reasons". After the recycling enterprise receives the freight subsidy for used home appliances and carries out the accounting treatment, it should pay attention to the disclosure in the financial accounting report.

Article 7 of the Enterprise Income Tax Law (2007) stipulates that three items of income, such as financial grants, are non-taxable income. The Regulations on the Implementation of the Enterprise Income Tax Law defines "financial allocation" in the non-taxable income as the financial funds allocated by the governments at all levels to institutions, social organizations and other organizations included in the budget management, unless otherwise stipulated by the State Council and the competent departments in charge of finance and taxation of the State Council. This excludes all kinds of tax rebates, price subsidies and other financial funds allocated to enterprises by governments at all levels, which is equivalent to adopting a narrower definition of financial allocations. Meanwhile, Cai Shui [2008] No. 151 stipulates that all kinds of financial funds obtained by enterprises, except for those belonging to state investment and those requiring the return of principal after the use of funds, shall be included in the total income of the enterprise for the year. Therefore, the freight subsidy obtained by the recycling enterprise does not belong to the "non-taxable income", and according to the accounting treatment stipulated by the accounting standards and the provisions of Cai Shui [2008] No. 151, the freight subsidy is included in the total income of the current year, which increases the taxable income of the current period, and calculates and pays the enterprise income tax.

Dismantling enterprises

Dismantling enterprises and sales enterprises are both reviewers and advancers of the Measures, with the former advancing freight subsidies and the latter advancing price subsidies. The dismantling enterprise through the "other receivables" account accounting for its advance freight subsidies: in the receipt of old appliances, according to the payment of freight subsidies, debit "other receivables", according to the difference between the amount of payment and freight subsidies, debit "raw materials", etc., according to the payment of freight subsidies, debit "other receivables", according to the amount of payment and freight subsidies, debit "other receivables". Raw materials", etc., according to the difference between the amount paid and the freight subsidy, debit "bank deposits", etc., according to the total amount paid; to the government to recover the subsidy advanced, debit "bank deposits", credit "other receivables". "(c) Other accounts receivable. The dismantling enterprise has not received any subsidy income from the government, so there is no question of paying the relevant income tax.

Enterprise purchasers

The Measures stipulate that enterprises registered in nine pilot provinces and cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, can enjoy the subsidy policy in the same way as residents holding household registration in those provinces and cities. For example, if an enterprise uniformly replaces new computers, sells old computers to obtain 0.5 million yuan, and then buys a batch of new computers with an actual sales price of 150,000 yuan, it can focus on enjoying 10% subsidies (150,000 yuan × 10%), and the enterprise only needs to pay 135,000 yuan,*** saving costs of 20,000 yuan (1.5 + 0.5).

For enterprises to sell old appliances, according to the disposal of fixed assets for accounting treatment. For enterprises to buy new appliances, there are two bookkeeping methods in practice: one is the actual price paid as the recorded value of fixed assets. ASBE No. 4 - Fixed Assets stipulates that purchased fixed assets are recorded according to the actual price paid and related expenses. The government subsidy reduces the recorded value of fixed assets, which indirectly reduces the depreciation of the value of fixed assets in each period and increases the taxable income in subsequent periods.

The other method is to take the actual price paid plus the government subsidy as the book value of fixed assets, and at the same time, recognize the income from the government subsidy as non-operating income or subsidy income in the current period. Those who agree with the second method believe that the price subsidy belongs to the government's subsidies on home appliances, different from the sale of corporate discounts, can not offset the recorded value of assets; at the same time, according to including the amount of government subsidies to the accounting is conducive to the true reflection of the value of fixed assets. Under the second method, the government subsidy is directly included in the current taxable income and pay income tax. It can be seen that both methods that government subsidies should be subject to income tax, only time differences.