Question -
Answer -
At the time of retirement or at the event of death of a partner, the goodwill is adjusted among the partners in gaining ratio with the share of goodwill of the retiring or the deceased partner. As per Para 16 of Accounting Standard 10, it is mandatory to record goodwill in the books only when consideration in money or money’s worth has been paid for it.
In case of retirement and death of a partner, goodwill account cannot be raised. There are namely two probable situations on which the treatment of goodwill rests.
1. If goodwill already appears in the books of the firm.
2. If no goodwill appears in the books of the firm.
Situation 1: If goodwill already appears in the books of the firm.
Step 1: Write off the existing goodwill
If goodwill already appears in the old balance sheet of the firm (if mentioned in the question), then first of all, this goodwill should be written off and should be distributed among all the partners of the firm including the retiring or the deceased partner in their old profit sharing ratio. The following Journal entry is passed to write off the old/existing goodwill.