2. Pensions as an expense
2.1. Early approaches to pension accounting
In the USA and UK, private-sector employer-sponsored pension arrangements began to appear in the second half of the 19th century, and were often associated with large organizations such as railways, insurance companies and banks (Hannah, 1986: 10–12; Chandar and Miranti,2007: 206). Accounting for these arrangements was often very simple. The cost recognized by the employer was effectively the cash paid in a given period. Some schemes operated on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis, where the employer made no advance provision for retirement benefits. In this case, the cost each period equaled the benefits paid. In a scheme where the employer made contributions to an external fund invested in securities, out of which benefits would be paid, or made notional contributions to an internal account, the cost would be the contributions arising in each period, possibly augmented by interest on notional contributions if these were not used to purchase securities. However, many employers granted pension

2養(yǎng)老金費(fèi)用
2.1早先的養(yǎng)老金會(huì)計(jì)
在19世紀(jì)后期的美國和英國，出現(xiàn)了私人部門雇主贊助的養(yǎng)老金計(jì)劃，主要集中于鐵路公司和保險(xiǎn)業(yè)、銀行業(yè)等大型機(jī)構(gòu)(Hannah, 1986: 10–12; Chandar and Miranti,2007: 206)。這時(shí)的養(yǎng)老金會(huì)計(jì)往往非常簡單。雇主確認(rèn)的成本實(shí)際上就是一定期間內(nèi)支付的現(xiàn)金。很多養(yǎng)老金計(jì)劃是都是在職工退休后進(jìn)行支付，雇主并沒有提供進(jìn)一步的退休福利。在這種情況下，每段期間內(nèi)的成本就是該期間的現(xiàn)金支付。在某些計(jì)劃中，雇主提供資金投資于外部的證券，用取得的收益支付養(yǎng)老金，或是向內(nèi)部的賬戶提供資金。如果基金沒有被用來購買證券，成本將會(huì)是每段時(shí)間內(nèi)的服務(wù)成本并計(jì)上合理的利率。然而，很多雇主為了能讓雇員退休情愿支付養(yǎng)老金，但是并沒有提供進(jìn)一步的福利。
現(xiàn)收現(xiàn)付制養(yǎng)老金會(huì)計(jì)是建立在“酬金理論”(McGill et al., 2004: 16)