The transfer price should not be lower than the variable costs of production, even if there is excess capacity. As long as selling price covers the variable costs and even a very small amount of fixed costs in case of excess capacity, it is beneficial to the company. An acceptable price is within a range, and $50 is not the only acceptable price. It would subvert overall profit goals of the company to choose a transfer price above the free market level. The basic issue of transfer prices is simply how much should one unit of a company charge another unit of the same company for its goods or services. The goal in setting a transfer price is that the method used will stimulate both the buying and selling department managers to do what will provide the greatest benefit to the company as a whole, rather than to act in their own interest. When there is an external market for the product, market price is almost always the best transfer price to use. Thus, market price is at the maximum of the natural range. When the company has idle capacity, the variable cost approach to determining the transfer price also works well. Since the Fabricating Division has enough capacity to fulfill the demand of the Assembling Division without any over-time, the variable cost approach is also acceptable and is at the minimum of the natural range.
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