Question

ABC Company purchases five products for sale in the order and at the costs shown:

Unit Cost per Unit
1 $10
2 $12
3 $15
4 $18
5 $13
Assume ABC sells two items and uses the LIFO method of inventory valuation. What amount would appear for cost of goods sold on the income statement?
a. $31
b. $37
c. $41
d. $22

Answer 1

ABC Company would report a cost of goods sold on the income statement of $37 using the LIFO method of inventory valuation.

Step-by-step explanation:

Total revenues in this example will be a quantity of five units multiplied by the price of $25/unit, which equals $125. Total costs when producing five units are $130. Thus, at this level of quantity and output the firm experiences losses (or negative profits) of $5.

If price is less than average cost, the firm is not making a profit. At an output of five units, the average cost is $26/unit. Thus, at a glance you can see the firm is making losses. At a second glance, you can see that it must be losing $1 for each unit produced (that is, average cost of $26/unit minus the price of $25/unit). With five units produced, this observation implies total losses of $5.

When producing five units, marginal costs are $30/unit. Price is $25/unit. Thus, the marginal unit is not adding to profits, but is actually subtracting from profits, which suggests that the firm should reduce its quantity produced.