MAYS J W INC - Quarter Report: 2017 October (Form 10-Q)

Accounting Records and Use of Estimates:

The accounting records are maintained in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). The preparation of the Company’s financial statements in accordance with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. The estimates that we make include allowance for doubtful accounts, depreciation and amortization, income tax assets and liabilities, fair value of marketable securities and revenue recognition. Estimates are based on historical experience where applicable or other assumptions that management believes are reasonable under the circumstances. Due to the inherent uncertainty involved in making estimates, actual results may differ from those estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

The interim financial statements are prepared pursuant to the requirements for reporting on Form 10-Q. The July 31, 2017 condensed consolidated balance sheet was derived from audited financial statements but does not include all disclosures required by GAAP. The interim financial statements and notes thereto should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes included in the Company's latest Form 10-K Annual Report for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2017. In the opinion of management, the interim financial statements reflect all adjustments of a normal recurring nature necessary for a fair statement of the results for interim periods. The results of operations for the current period are not necessarily indicative of the results for the entire fiscal year ending July 31, 2018.

The computation of the annual expected effective tax rate at each interim period requires certain estimates and assumptions including, but not limited to, the expected operating income for the year and future periods, projections of the proportion of income (or loss), and permanent and temporary differences. The accounting estimates used to compute the provision for income taxes may change as new events occur, more experience is acquired, or as additional information is obtained. To the extent that the estimated annual effective tax rate changes during a quarter, the effect of the change on prior quarters is included in tax expense for the current quarter.

As of July 31, 2017, the Company had a federal net operating loss carryforward approximating $5,366,000 which is available to offset future taxable income. In addition, as of July 31, 2017, the Company had state and city net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $10,107,000 and $8,274,000, respectively, available to offset future state and city taxable income. The net operating loss carryforwards will begin to expire, if not used, in 2035.

New York State and New York City taxes are calculated using the higher of taxes based on income or the respective capital-based franchise taxes. In April 2014, the New York State governor signed into law legislation overhauling the New York State franchise tax on corporations. The changes in the law were effective for the Company’s year ended July 31, 2016. The state capital-based tax will be phased out over a 7-year period. The Company anticipates New York State taxes will be based on capital through 2021, and New York City taxes will be based on capital for the foreseeable future. Capital based franchise taxes are recorded to administrative and general expense.

Due to the application of the capital-based tax while the net operating loss still applies, or due to the possible absence of State taxable income in the years beyond 2021 to which the State loss can be carried, the Company has not recorded the tax benefit of its New York State and New York City net operating loss carryforwards.

Recently issued accounting standards not yet adopted:

In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-09 “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” (“ASU 2014-09”) establishing ASC Topic 606 Revenue from Contracts with Customers. ASU 2014-09 establishes a single comprehensive model for entities to use in accounting for revenue arising from contracts with customers and supersedes most of the existing revenue recognition guidance. ASU 2014-09 requires an entity to recognize revenue when it transfers promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services and also requires certain additional disclosures. ASU 2014-09 is effective for interim and annual reporting in fiscal years that begin after December 15, 2016. ASU 2015-14 extended the implementation date for fiscal years beginning after December 31, 2017. The adoption of this ASU on August 1, 2018 is not expected to have a significant impact on our consolidated financial statements.

Subsequent to the issuance of ASU 2014-09, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-08, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Principal versus Agent Considerations (Reporting Revenue Gross versus Net)”, ASU No. 2016-10, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Identifying Performance Obligations and Licensing”, ASU No. 2016-12, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Narrow-Scope Improvements and Practical Expedients”, and ASU No. 2016-20, "Technical Corrections and Improvements to Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers." The additional ASU's clarified certain provisions of ASU 2014-09 in response to recommendations from the Transition Resource Group established by the FASB and have the same effective date and transition requirements as ASU 2014-09. The adoption of these updates on August 1, 2018 is not expected to have significant impact on our consolidated financial statements.

In January 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-01 "Financial Instruments-Overall (Subtopic 825-10): Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities." ASU 2016-01 amends certain aspects of recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of financial instruments, including the requirement to measure certain equity investments at fair value with changes in fair value recognized in net income. ASU No. 2016-01 will be effective for interim and annual periods beginning after December 15, 2017. The adoption of this ASU is not expected to have a significant impact on our balance sheet and statement of operations.

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, “Leases.” ASU 2016-02 is intended to increase transparency and comparability among organizations of accounting for leasing arrangements. This guidance establishes a right-of-use model that requires a lessee to record a right-of-use asset and a lease liability on the balance sheet for all leases with terms longer than twelve months. Leases will be classified as either finance or operating, with classification affecting the pattern of expense recognition in the income statement. Lessor accounting remains similar to the current model, but updated to align with certain changes to the lessee model and the new revenue recognition standard (ASU 2014-09). ASU 2016-02 offers specific accounting guidance for a lessee, a lessor and sale and leaseback transactions. Lessees and lessors are required to disclose qualitative and quantitative information about leasing arrangements to enable a user of the financial statements to assess the amount, timing and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. Entities will be required to recognize and measure leases as of the earliest period presented using a modified retrospective approach. The standard is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The new standard will be effective for the Company for the fiscal year beginning August 1, 2019. Early adoption is permitted. The adoption of this guidance is expected to result in an increase in assets and liabilities on the Company’s balance sheet, with no material impact on the statement of operations. However, the ultimate impact of adopting this ASU will depend on the Company’s lease portfolio as of the adoption date.

In November 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-18, “Restricted Cash”. ASU 2016-18 requires that a statement of cash flows explain the change during the period in the total of cash, cash equivalents, and amounts generally described as restricted cash or restricted cash equivalents. Restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents will be included with cash and cash equivalents when reconciling the beginning of period and end of period balances on the statement of cash flows upon adoption of this standard. ASU 2016-18 is effective for interim and annual reporting periods in fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, with early adoption permitted.

Income Per Share of Common Stock:

Income per share has been computed by dividing the net income for the periods by the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding during the periods, adjusted for the purchase of treasury stock. Shares used in computing income per share were 2,015,780 for the three months ended October 31, 2017 and October 31, 2016.

Marketable Securities:

The Company categorizes marketable securities as either trading, available-for-sale or held-to-maturity. Trading securities are carried at fair value with unrealized gains and losses included in income. Available-for-sale securities are carried at fair value measurements using quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities with unrealized gains and losses recorded as a separate component of shareholders' equity. Held-to-maturity securities are carried at amortized cost. Dividends and interest income are accrued as earned. Realized gains and losses are determined on a specific identification basis. The Company reviews marketable securities for impairment whenever circumstances and situations change such that there is an indication that the carrying amounts may not be recovered. The Company did not classify any securities as trading or held to maturity during the three months ended October 31, 2017 and year ended July 31, 2017.

The Company follows GAAP which establishes a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the valuation techniques and creates the following three broad levels, with Level 1 valuation being the highest priority:

Level 1 valuation inputs are quoted market prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that are accessible at the measurement date (e.g., equity securities traded on the New York Stock Exchange).

Level 2 valuation inputs are from other than quoted market prices included in Level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability, either directly or indirectly (e.g., quoted market prices of similar assets or liabilities in active markets, or quoted market prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not active).

Level 3 valuation inputs are unobservable (e.g., an entity’s own data) and should be used to measure fair value to the extent that observable inputs are not available.

Following is a description of the valuation methodologies used for assets measured at fair value on a recurring basis. There have been no changes in the methodologies used at October 31, 2017 and July 31, 2017.

Equity securities are valued at the closing price reported on the active market on which the individual securities are traded that the Company has access to.

Mutual funds are valued at the daily closing price as reported by the fund. Mutual funds held by the Company are open-end mutual funds that are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These funds are required to publish their daily net asset value (“NAV”) and to transact at that price. The mutual funds held by the Company are deemed to be actively traded.

Financial Instruments and Credit Risk Concentrations:

Financial instruments that are potentially subject to concentrations of credit risk consist principally of marketable securities, cash and cash equivalents and receivables. Marketable securities and cash and cash equivalents are placed with multiple financial institutions and multiple instruments to minimize risk. No assurance can be made that such financial institutions and instruments will minimize all such risk.

The Company derives rental income from approximately fifty tenants, of which one tenant accounted for 17.78%, another tenant accounted for 14.61% and a third tenant accounted for 12.99% of rental income during the three months ended October 31, 2017. The three months ended October 31, 2016 had one tenant account for 18.66%, another tenant account for 15.10% and a third tenant accounted for 10.52% of rental income. No other tenant accounted for more than 10% of rental income during the same periods.

The Company has one irrevocable Letter of Credit totaling $230,000 at October 31, 2017 and July 31, 2017 provided by a tenant as a security deposit.

Long-Term Debt – Mortgage:

Property and Equipment – at cost:

Unbilled Receivables and Rental Income:

Unbilled receivables represent the excess of scheduled rental income recognized on a straight-line basis over rental income as it becomes receivable according to the provisions of each lease.

Employees' Retirement Plan:

The Company sponsors a noncontributory Money Purchase Plan covering substantially all of its non-union employees. Operations were charged $104,432 and $102,509 as contributions to the Plan for the three months ended October 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Multi-employer plan:

The Company contributes to a union sponsored multi-employer pension plan covering its union employees. The Company contributions to the pension plan were $15,599 and $12,611 for the three months ended October 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. Contributions and costs are determined in accordance with the provisions of negotiated labor contracts or terms of the plans. The Company also contributes to union sponsored health benefit plans.

Contingent Liability for Pension Plan:

Information as to the Company’s portion of accumulated plan benefits and plan assets is not reported separately by the pension plan. Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, upon withdrawal from a multi-employer benefit plan, an employer is required to continue to pay its proportionate share of the plan’s unfunded vested benefits, if any. Any liability under this provision cannot be determined: however, the Company has not made a decision to withdraw from the plan.

Information for contributing employer’s participation in the multi-employer plan:

Cash Flow Information:

For purposes of reporting cash flows, the Company considers cash equivalents to consist of short-term highly liquid investments with maturities of three (3) months or less, which are readily convertible into cash.

Common Stock:

The Company has one class of common stock with identical voting rights and rights to liquidation.

Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income:

The only component of accumulated other comprehensive income is unrealized gain (loss) on available-for-sale securities.

A summary of the changes in accumulated other comprehensive income for the three months ended October 31, 2017 and 2016 is as follows:

Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement:

On June 16, 2014, the Company entered into a Second Amendment of Lease (the "Amendment") with 33 Bond St. LLC ("Bond"), its landlord, for certain truck bays and approximately 1,000 square feet located at the cellar level within a garage at Livingston and Bond Street ("Premises"). Pursuant to the Amendment, (1) a lease option for the Premises was exercised extending the lease until December 8, 2043, (2) the Company, simultaneously with the execution of the Amendment, vacated the Premises so that Bond may demolish the building in which the Premises is located in order to develop and construct a new building at the location, and (3) Bond agreed to redeliver to the Company possession of the reconfigured Premises after construction.

As consideration under the Amendment, Bond agreed to pay the Company a total of $3,500,000. Upon execution of the Amendment, the Company recorded $3,500,000 to deferred revenue to be amortized to revenue to temporarily vacate the premises over the expected vacate period of 36 months. Bond tendered $2,250,000 simultaneously with the execution of the Amendment, and the balance due of $1,250,000 on June 16, 2015 had been received by the Company. The Company re-occupied the premises in October 2017.

In connection with the Amendment, the parties also agreed to settle a pending lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Kings County, Index No. 50796/13 (the "Action"), in which the Company sought, among other things, a declaratory judgment that it validly renewed the lease for the Premises, and Bond sought, among other things, a declaratory judgment that the lease expired by its terms on December 8, 2013. Pursuant to a stipulation of settlement, filed on June 16, 2014, the Action, including all claims and counterclaims, has been discontinued with prejudice, without costs or attorneys' fees to any party as against the other. The stipulation of settlement also contains general releases by both parties of all claims.

Contingencies:

Due to defective workmanship and breach of contract, the Company continues to pursue damages and return in full of a $376,467 deposit paid a contractor when construction commenced to replace a roof and various other work on the Fishkill, New York building. Both the contractor and subcontractors have claimed the Company tortuously interfered with the construction contracts arguing for fees and costs which approximate $700,000. While the Company strongly disputes the claims, it is possible that the court may rule against the Company and may assess damages in amounts up to approximately $700,000. It is also possible that the court may rule in favor of the Company and that no damages would be awarded against the Company and the Company could obtain an order for the return of all or a portion of amounts previously paid. A charge to real estate operating expenses in the amount of $279,213 was recorded for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2016. Following initial court decisions, another $141,132 was charged to operating expenses on October 31, 2016 and this amount was ordered by the Court to be paid, plus interest in the amount of $48,116, in a judgement dated September 14, 2017. This amount of $189,248 was paid in October 2017. The testimony phase of the trial has been completed and the parties await further decisions and orders of the court.

There are various other lawsuits and claims pending against the Company. It is the opinion of management that the resolution of these matters will not have a material adverse effect on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.

If the Company sells, transfers, disposes of or demolishes 25 Elm Place, Brooklyn, New York, then the Company may be liable to create a condominium unit for the loading dock. The necessity of creating the condominium unit and the cost of such condominium unit cannot be determined at this time.