Introduction Minority interest refers to the interest of the outsiders in the subsidiary or subsidiaries of a holding company. In the presentation of the consolidated balance sheet of a parent company and its subsidiaries, Minority Interest is shown just below Shareholders’ Funds. Explanation To undRead more
Introduction
Minority interest refers to the interest of the outsiders in the subsidiary or subsidiaries of a holding company. In the presentation of the consolidated balance sheet of a parent company and its subsidiaries, Minority Interest is shown just below Shareholders’ Funds.
Explanation
To understand the concept of minority interest, we need to first understand the relationship between a holding company and its subsidiary company or companies.
A holding company means a company that controls one or more companies by:
- Holding more than fifty percent of the total voting rights or equity share capital.
- having the power to appoint or remove the majority of the board members.
A subsidiary company is a company that is controlled by another company.

From the above, we can simply deduce that a holding company holds the majority of the equity in its subsidiary company or companies.
So, the equity of the subsidiary company which does not belong to the holding company, but to the outsiders is known as the minority interest as it is, in fact, the minority in comparison to the majority stake of the holding company.
Example
For example, A Ltd holds 75% of the equity in B Ltd, then the rest 25% which belongs to the outsiders will be the Minority Interest.
Minority Interest means the share of outsiders in the:
- Paid-up share capital of the subsidiary
- Reserve and Surplus
For example, B Ltd has the following particulars under Shareholders’ Funds.
| Equity Share Capital | Rs. 10,00,000 |
| Revaluation Reserve | Rs. 4,00,000 |
| Balance of Profit and Loss A/c | Rs. 1,00,000 |
| General Reserves | Rs. 5,00,000 |
B Ltd is a subsidiary company of the A Ltd. A Ltd holds 75% of B Ltd.
It means minority interest in B Ltd is 25% (100% – 75%)
Therefore, in the consolidated balance sheet of A Ltd and its subsidiary, the minority interest will be as follows:
Minority Interest in B Ltd (25%)
| Equity Share Capital | Rs. 2,50,000 (10,00,000 x 25%) |
| Revaluation Reserve | Rs. 1,00,000 (4,00,000 x 25%) |
| Balance of Profit and Loss A/c | Rs. 25,000 (1,00,000 x 25%) |
| General Reserves | Rs. 1,25,000 (5,00,000 x 25%) |
| Total | Rs. 5,00,000 |
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Any person, company, or organization that owes us money is a debtor. The amount that is owed to us is called debt. When you are unsure if a debtor is going to pay back the amount owed to you, then a provision for doubtful debts is created. Here, the debtor may or may not pay back the amount owed. WhRead more
Any person, company, or organization that owes us money is a debtor. The amount that is owed to us is called debt. When you are unsure if a debtor is going to pay back the amount owed to you, then a provision for doubtful debts is created. Here, the debtor may or may not pay back the amount owed. When the debts owed to us is irrecoverable, it is termed as bad debts.
Provision for doubtful debts may become a bad debt at some point. Usually, companies keep a small portion of their debtors as a provision for doubtful debts in accordance with the prudence concept that tells us to account for all possible losses. Provision for doubtful debts is a liability whereas bad debts are recorded as an expense.
Journal entries for Doubtful debts and bad debts are as follows:
EXAMPLE
If the balance in the debtors’ account shows an amount of Rs 20,000 and 5% of debtors are treated as doubtful, then Rs 1,000 is recorded as a provision for doubtful debts. This amount is deducted from debtors in the balance sheet.
Now if Rs 400 was recorded as actual bad debts, then it is deducted from the provision for doubtful debts instead of debtors. Further another 400 is added back to provision for doubtful debts to maintain the percentage.
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