Classification of Costs for Land and Building Project

Classification of Costs and Interest Capitalization

On January 1, 2010, Blair Corporation purchased for $500,000 a tract of land (site number 101) with a building. Blair paid a real estate broker's commission of $36,000, legal fees of $6,000, and title guarantee insurance of $18,000. The closing statement indicated that the land value was $500,000 and the building value was $100,000. Shortly after acquisition, the building was razed at a cost of $54,000.

Blair entered into a $3,000,000 fixed-price contract with Slatkin Builders, Inc. on March 1, 2010, for the construction of an office building on land site number 101. The building was completed and occupied on September 30, 2011. Additional construction costs were incurred as follows.

Plans, specifications, and blueprints $21,000
Architects' fees for design and supervision 82,000

The building is estimated to have a 40-year life from date of completion and will be depreciated using the 150% declining balance method.

To finance construction costs, Blair borrowed $3,000,000 on March 1, 2010. The loan is payable in 10 annual installments of $300,000 plus interest at the rate of 10%. Blair's weighted-average amounts of accumulated building construction expenditures were as follows.

For the period March 1 to December 31, 2010 $1,300,000

For the period January 1 to September 30, 2011 1,700,000

Prepare a schedule that discloses the individual costs making up the balance in the land account in respect of land site number 101 as of September 30, 2011. (List multiple entries from the largest positive to the smallest positive amount, e.g. 10, 5, 2).

Identify the costs to include in initial valuation of property, plant, and equipment and describe the accounting problems associated with interest capitalization.