In: Accounting
CASE 11‐5 Early Extinguishment of Debt
Gains or losses from the early extinguishment of debt that is refunded can theoretically be accounted for in three ways:
Required:
Early extinguishment of debt refers to recall the debt securities issued by the organisation before maturity of debt in order to save further finance cost or gain advantage of favourable market conditions. Sometimes, this is also happened when the interest rate is down in the market and we have already issued the debt security at higher rate of interest. In that case it is suitable to recall them and issue fresh security at lower interest rate to save finance cost.
This extinguishment of debt may be possible either in gain or loss to organisation but ultimately it will give benefit to the organisation in future year by saving finance cost.
As per accounting framework provided by Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standard Board (IASB), it is recommended that all the gains including the losses will be recorded in the year of extinguishment. Here, gain (loss) refers to difference between reacquisition value of debt security and net carrying value (Face Value after adjusting unamortized premium (Discount) and Cost of Issue of Security).
However, if there is any change and modification in terms of debt security then it will also treated as debt extinguishment if the present value of future cash flow of new security is varied by at least 10% from the present value of cash flow of original security.