Meredith and Katie form an equal partnership during the current year. Meredith contributes cash of $160,000, and Katie contributes property (adjusted basis of $90,000, fair market value of $260,000) subject to a nonrecourse liability of $100,000. As a result of these transactions, Katie has a basis in her partnership interest of $40,000.

True
False

Each of the following scenarios is based on facts in anactual fraud. categorize each scenario as primarily indicating (1) anincentive to commit fraud, (2) an opportunity to commit fraud, or(3) a rationalization for committing fraud. also state your reasoningfor each scenario. a. there was intense pressure to keep the corporation ' stock from declining further. this pressure came from investors, analysts, and the ceo, whose financial well-being was significantly dependent on the corporation ' s stock price. b. a group of top-level management was compensated (mostly in the form of stock-options) well in excess of what would be considered normal for their positions in this industry. c. top management of the company closely guards internal financial information, to the extent that even some employees on a “need-to-know basis” are denied full access. d. managing specific financial ratios is very important to the company, and both management and analysts are keenly observant of variability in key ratios. key ratios for the company changed very little even though the ratios for the overall industry were quite volatile during the time period. e. in an effort to reduce certain accrued expenses to meet budget targets, the cfo directs the general accounting department to reallocate a division’s expenses by a significant amount. the general accounting department refuses to acquiesce to the request, but the journal entry is made trough the corporate office. an accountant in the general accounting department is uncomfortable with the journal entries required to reallocate divisional expenses. he brings his concerns to the cfo, who assures him that everything will be fine and that the entries are necessary. the accountant considers resigning, but he does not have another job lined up and is worried about supporting his family. therefore, he never voices his concerns to either the internal or external auditors. f. accounting records were either nonexistent or in a state of such disorganization that significant effort was required to locate or compile them.

Sabrina gupta, an investment advisor with a major brokerage firm, was examining wal-mart stores, inc. (wal-mart) stock and its valuation. gupta wondered whether to recommend the stock to any of her new clients or to existing clients who did not currently have wal-mart in their portfolios. her key task was to use an intrinsic value approach to price the shares and to then compare the resulting price with the price at which the stock was traded in the market. gupta wanted to use alternative valuation methods and assumptions to produce intrinsic value estimates for wal-mart stock. she was interested in seeing if the alternative methods would point to a consensus regarding the valuation of the stock and to see if the valuations suggested an investment opportunity given the current market price. methods she contemplated to use were: multi-stage growth modelprice earnings multiplemost valuation methods gupta considered required a common set of inputs: future cash flows to wal-mart investorsgrowth rate of future cash flowsdiscount factor or required rate of return by wal-mart investorsgupta gathered data to determine each of the above. gupta thought that dividends to wal-mart shareholders would adequately capture the cash flows to wal-mart shareholders; she also thought that this approach would simplify her task and she would revisit more complex valuation models if she felt the need. gupta thought that capm would provide her a relatively reliable estimate of the required rate of return. capm based required rate of return can be estimated by using a risk free rate, systematic risk of the firm and equity market risk premium. gupta thought that in a valuation exercise that involve long term cash flows, 10-year government bond yield would be an appropriate risk free rate of return estimate. she checked the 10 year note rate and found out that it was about 3.68%. gupta searched for wal-mart beta in bloomberg. bloomberg estimates betas by regressing the s& p 500 returns on the firm returns over the past two years and arrives at a “raw” beta estimate. bloomberg makes an adjustment in raw beta based on some academic research. gupta is confident that bloomberg adjustment is justified and she uses wal-mart beta estimate of 0.66 in her analysis. while gupta is aware of the importance of emrp assumption, she thinks that bloomberg’s historical estimate of 5.05% is a safe assumption. she is aware of the fact that some studies suggest a larger risk premium of approximately six per cent, while others suggest a much lower forward-looking premium of less than four per cent. she is mindful of the arbitrariness of her assumption, and she takes a note to revisit this issue if her valuations produce unreasonable estimates. anticipated dividend growth (g) is often estimated in a variety of ways. first, observed historical dividend growth can be assumed to continue in a perpetual fashion. second, future dividend growth can be estimated on the basis of recent estimates of analysts. gupta noted that the consensus annual wal-mart dividend for fiscal year 2011 was $1.21, and one respected analyst had estimated the expected constant dividend growth (in perpetuity) at approximately 3%.as the chart suggests, both earnings and dividend growth rates are declining but they seem to be higher than the “respected analyst’s” estimates. gupta decides to use several alternative perpetual growth assumptions to see the impact on price. since gupta decided to use variants of dividend discount model (ddm), she checked the anticipated earnings for 2011. analyst’s estimates suggested $4.10 earnings per share. gupta decided to use 10% growth rate from 2011 to 2012 and assumed a steady decline to 3% in 13 years (until 2024) where the perpetual growth rate of 3% resumes. she also assumed that walmart will increase its dividend payout ratio from 30% to 55% from years 2012 to 2024. you are asked to reproduce gupta’s analysis of multi-stage growth model and double check her valuation by using an earnings multiple. you have all the data you need to conduct the multi stage discounted growth model analysis, but you will need to do some research about the multiples valuation.

Sarah is an accountant with desires to open her own business. she is looking for office space at a reasonable rate along with internet service. of the conditions that need to be put in place for the entrepreneurial ecosystem, she needs