编制合并报表:成本法与权益法的比较与选择

采用成本法核算对子公司的长期股权投资并据此编制合并报表,母公司能通过控制子公司的股利政策而操纵个别报表利润,合并净利润或期末留存收益也往往大于母公司个别报表中的相关指标。从而无法完成合并报表"数据验证"的自检功能,也使集团的净利润或期末留存收益虚增,据此计算的相关财务指标如投资报酬率也可能虚假或被曲解。采用权益法编制合并报表,则可克服上述不足,从而能提供更有用、更相关的信息。本文通过简例对上述差异进行了阐释。

Consolidated Financial Statements: Comparison and Choice between Cost Method and Equity Method

When the parent company uses the cost method to calculate the long-term investment of subsidiaries and prepares the consolidated financial statements accordingly, the parent company can manipulate the profit in separate financial statements by controlling the dividends policy, and net consolidated profit or the retained earnings at the end of period would have great difference with the relevant data in the financial statements of the parent company itself. Therefore, in no way can the consolidated financial statements perform its self-check function of "data verification". Besides, the net profit or retained earnings of the business group would be more than reality, and the relevant financial ratio, such as the remuneration rate of investment, would be distorted. However, the disadvantages can be avoided if the equity method is used while the consolidated financial statements are prepared so as to disclose more useful and relevant information. This paper mainly illustrates the differences between them through brief cases.