Accounting for Income Taxes

According to Accounting Theory: Contemporary Accounting Issues by Evans, accountants have developed two alternative approaches to accounting for income taxes, which are the cash method and the allocation method. The cash method is described as a simple and direct approach. The amount of income taxes actually paid for the year is reported on the Income Statement. The amount comes from the firm 's income tax return and fit is not adjusted in any way. Therefore, the firm 's actual transaction to record its income tax liability is the basis for the amount of the income tax expense reported on the Income Statement. The allocation method is a bit different. The actual amount of tax that is paid in the year is ignored when it comes to reporting income tax expense on the Income Statement. The amount of income tax expense reported on the Income Statement is based on the on the income tax rate that the firm pays, which is applied to the amount of pretax income. This makes the Income Statement perfectly consistent with the before-tax income. Using the allocation method makes it look like all items on the Income Statement based on the same method. The development of accounting pronouncements for taxation reveals the difficulty that standard-setter s had with this topic. Following are summaries of major pronouncements dealing with accounting for income taxes.
APB OPINION #11 This pronouncement required the deferral method of accounting for income taxes. When the accounting net income exceeded taxable net income, balancing credit should be recognized, when the taxable net income exceeded the accounting, a balancing debit should be recognized. This was considered a deferred credit and a deferred debit. Deferred charges and credits were default classification and were placed on the Balance Sheet in what was called "no man 's land," or some undefined region, between liabilities and owner 's equity for deferred credits and between assets and liabilities for