Holding gains on Fixed Assets.

Abstract The article discusses the distinction between the conventional and some of the suggested methods of reporting fixed assets as they affect business income. This is done by presenting an article by professors R.L. Dickens and J.O. Blackburn published in the April 1964 issue of the journal The Accounting Review. These published accounts aid stockholders and other outsiders to project the future earnings and financial condition of the corporation and to assist with the evaluation of the performance of management. According to the author, as the individual requirements of different users of published accounts are unlikely to be cognate, one set of accounts will scarcely fulfill the needs of all stockholders and other outsiders, no matter how "objectively" the asset values contained therein are determined. He suggests that replacement cost, "realizable value," "historic cost," and "historic cost adjusted for price level changes," can provide a basis upon which stockholders and other interested external parties can project the earnings and financial condition of the enterprise according to their own requirements.