One more inventory question

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From a previous BSAS exam:
Use the following information for questions 11 through 13.
Patriot Inc is a calendar year corporation. Its financial statements for the years Year 2 and Year
1 contained errors as follows:
Year 1
Ending inventory $6,000 overstated
Depreciation expense $4,000 overstated
Year 2
Ending inventory $2,000 overstated
Depreciation expense $1,600 understated
11. Assume that the proper correcting entries were made at December 31, Year 1. By
how much will Year 2 income before taxes be overstated or understated?
A. $400 understated.
B. $400 overstated.
C. $1,600 overstated.
D. $3,600 overstated.
12. Assume that no correcting entries were made at December 31, Year 1. Ignoring
income taxes, by how much will retained earnings at December 31, Year 2 be
overstated or understated?
A. $400 understated.
B. $3,600 overstated.
C. $3,600 understated.
D. $6,400 understated.
13. Assuming that no correcting entries were made at December 31, Year 1 or
December 31, Year 2 and that no additional errors occurred in Year 3. Ignoring
income taxes, by how much will working capital at December 31, Year 3 be
overstated or understated.
A. $0.
B. $2,000 overstated.
C. $2,000 understated.
D. $3,600 understated.
 
Yes 11 was easy and the answer is D. But it is 12 and 13 that gave me a spin and I could not answer it correctly.
Correct answers are : 11-D, 12-A and 13-A
 
i am getting 5600 for 12… 2000 from first yr and 3600 from the second
 
As stated, the correct answer to 11 is D,
For 12:
The effect of the 2 depreciation errors is that cumulatively expense is overstated by a net $2,400.
Inventory errors self correct on a cumulative basis from year to year. Remember the formula:
Beginning inventory + Purchases -ending inventory =CGS
One year’s ending inventory is the next years beginning so a signle year error will correct in the next, which means at year 2 all we have is a $2,000 EI overstatement, which cause a CGS (expense) understatement of $2,000. The net of these two items (depreciation and CGS) is a $400 expense overstatement, or a $400 RE understatement, for Answer A.
For 13:
Depreciation is not working capital, so no effect there. As for the inventory errors, as I said they self correct thru RE in the next year, and at the end of year 3 (NOT year 2) if there are no errors and ending inventory was properly counted, as given in the problem, there is no working capital effect, giving us Answer A
 
I forgot about the self correcting nature of inventory changes from year to year. That is where I was making the mistake. Thanks for the response. I got 13 right later so I did not have an issue with it.
 
CAn you explain the self correcting nature of inventory. I did not get taht bit
 
Beginning inventory + Purchases -ending inventory1 =CGS 1
beg inventory2+purchases - ending inventory2=CGS2
but ending inventory1= beg inventory 2 .if we want to see the overall change in the 2 years
cgs1+cgs2= beg inventory -ending inventory1+beg inventory2(end inventory1)-ending inventory2 = beg inventory1-ending inventory2
Therefore if you take the cumulative error of the 2 years- the only error will be the error at the end of year 2 because the inventory self corrects -That is if in one year you everstate it in the next you will understate it, so the result will be 0 if no other problems occur
I had problems with this too so tell me if i’m wrong
 
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