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304 20: The accounts of unincorporated organisations (income and expenditure accounts)⏐ Part C Final accounts and audit
There are two ways of accounting for the life membership fee.
(a)
To keep the $300 in the life membership fund until Annette Cord dies. (Since the $300 earns interest of
$30 pa this interest can be said to represent income for the club in lieu of an annual subscription.) When
Annette eventually dies, the $300 she contributed can then be transferred out of the life membership fund
and directly into the accumulated fund.
(b)
To write off subscriptions to the life membership fund by transferring a 'fair' amount from the fund into
the income and expenditure account
. A 'fair' amount will represent the proportion of the total life
membership payment which relates to the current year. We do not know how long any life member will
live, but use an estimated average life say 20 years. In each year, one-twentieth of life membership fees
would be deducted from the fund and added as income in the income and expenditure account.
In the case of Annette Cord, the annual transfer under (b) is $15 and, after 20 years, her contribution to the fund has
been written off in full and transferred to the income and expenditure accounts of those 20 years. This transfer of $15 is
in addition to the annual interest of $30 earned by the club each year from investing the fee of $300.
If method (b) is selected in preference to method (a), the life membership fund can be written down by either a straight
line method or a reducing balance method, in much the same way as non-current assets are depreciated. However it is a
capital fund being written off and the amount of the annual write-off is
income to the club, and not an expense.
A further feature of method (b) is that there is no need to record the death of individual members (unlike method (a)).
The annual write off is based on an average expected life of members and it does not matter when any individual
member dies.
A possible reason for preferring method (b) to method (a) is that life membership subscriptions regularly pass through
the income and expenditure account as income of the club.
In spite of the logical reasons why method (b) should perhaps be preferable, method (a) is still commonly used.
Unless you are told about a rate for 'writing off' the life membership fund annually, you should assume that method (a)
should be used, where the question gives you information about the death of club life members.
3.8 Example: life membership fund
The Coxless Rowing Club has a scheme where members can opt to pay a lump sum which gives them membership for
life. Lump sum payments received for life membership are held in a life membership fund but then credited to the
income and expenditure account in equal instalments over a ten year period, beginning in the year when the lump sum
payment is made and life membership is acquired.
The treasurer of the club, Beau Trace, establishes the following information.
(a) At 31 December 20X4, the balance on the life membership fund was $8,250.
(b) Of this opening balance, $1,220 should be credited as income for the year to 31 December 20X5.
(c) During the year to 31 December 20X5, new life members made lump sum payments totalling $1,500.
Required
Show the movements in the life membership fund for the year to 31 December 20X5, and in doing so, calculate how
much should be transferred as income from life membership fund to the income and expenditure account.
Assessment
focus point
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