Pensions and Postretirement Benefits

Explain the purpose of the four general purpose financial statements. Pension plans are a major expense for companies and can entail serious complications because they involve estimates based on many years (and sometimes decades) in the future.Accounting for pension costs is somewhat complicated because of the variety of social concepts, legal considerations, actuarial techniques, income tax regulations, and varying business philosophies that affect the development and maintenance of pension plans.In addition, you will examine the potential accounting problems that can arise when a company decides to lease assets instead of purchasing them. As many companies are moving towards the option of leasing in recent years,the need for uniform accounting and complete informative reporting of leasing transactions has greatly intensified.As these topics can be very complex, be sure to take your time when completing the work for this unit and make sure you submit them in an excel file.