Answer:
the firm pay 39 millions dividends to his shareholders during the year.
Explanation:
The retained earnings identity is as follow:
beginning RE + net income - dividends = ending RE
we plug our values into the formula:
970 + 30 - dividends = 961
we clear dividends:
970 + 30 - 961 = dividends
And solve:
dividends = 39
Notes:
For every account, we always have this similar identity:
a beginning balance
a type of transaction that increase their balance
another kind of transaction which decreased
and a final balance which is the net of the previous.
beginning + increase - decrease = ending
Always try to identify how each transaction impact the account and from there, setup the equation.
