In: Accounting
For Oxford Corporation, year-end plan assets were $3,000,000. At the beginning of the year, plan assets were $2,450,000. During the year, contributions to the fund were $180,000 and benefits paid were $110,000. Compute Oxford's actual return on plan assets.
Select one:
a. $260,000
b. $350,000
c. $480,000
d. $550,000
e. $840,000
Answer is (c) = $480,000.
Reason:
Opening Balance + Contributions to the fund + Return on Plan Assets - Benefits paid = Closing Balance of Plan Assets.
Let return on plan assets be x.
Inserting the amounts in the formula given above,
$2,450,000 + $180,000 + x - $110,000 = $3,000,000
$2,520,000 + x = $3,000,000
x = $3,000,000 - $2,520,000
x = $480,000
Therefore, the actual return on the plan assets is $480,000.
Note: Actuarial gain/(loss) has not been given in the question hence it is not considered.
All other options are incorrect as we did not get those amounts through the above mentioned calculation.