Sometimes companies purchase businesses for more than what they are actually worth. The difference between a business' actual worth and what someone pays for that business is referred to as goodwill.

This book traces the history of the goodwill accounting controversy in detail. The book explores the problem of recognizing the importance of goodwill as a whole and finding a way of presenting ...

There is a lot of discussion these days about accounting for goodwill, especially with respect to accounting issues subsequent to its acquisition. This debate is driven by managerial criticisms of ...

As part of our ongoing series on tax issues for accounting firm transactions, this article discusses the benefits of utilizing personal goodwill in accounting firm M&A deals when appropriate. Personal ...

As the Financial Accounting Standards Board considers additional interventions in the way public companies account for goodwill, they would do well to remember one of Hippocrates’ maxims for ...

Ramanna, Karthik. "The Implications of Unverifiable Fair-Value Accounting: Evidence from the Political Economy of Goodwill Accounting." Ph.D. diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2007. ...

When you feel good about something, you’re usually willing to pay more for it. It’s the same concept when a company considers acquiring another. As a result, acquiring companies are often willing to ...

Though it sounds bad, "negative goodwill" is actually a good thing for a business owner, because it means your company has bought another business for less than that company's fair market value. In ...

Ramanna, Karthik. "The Implications of Unverifiable Fair-value Accounting: Evidence from the Political Economy of Goodwill Accounting." Journal of Accounting & Economics 45, nos. 2-3 (August 2008): ...