Effects of various valuations of notional costs of acquisition

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, , language: English, abstract: The current economic crisis shows that the valuation of assets is an important subject for our global economy because reserves help a company to better withstand a crisis. The valuation of assets should therefore be perfected as soon as a company is established. How non-cash contributions are valued in the start-up balance sheet has long-term consequences for future balance sheets and profit and loss accounts.

There is a loophole in the valuation of non-cash contributions in Germany as the §§ 242 I, 253 I, 255 I HGB (German Commercial Code) are only to be applied by analogy. When comparing this with international standards on the other hand, the valuation of non-cash contributions on company start-up is clearly regulated in other countries; for example in Austria by codification of the fair value in § 202 UGB (Austrian Commercial Code) and in the IFRS reporting system by the principle of fair value. Due to the German loophole, there is an ongoing controversial discussion in academic literature on the valuation of non-cash contributions. This leads to a need to investigate the effects of various valuations of notional costs of acquisition in more detail by using case studies with the aim of ascertaining whether there should be a uniform perspective and accordingly an ideal valuation.