Dec.2011 Q1 goodwill impairment

There was an article not long ago in Student Accountant where this was explained. If the goodwill on acquisition was calculated as $120m and the nci had been valued on a proportional basis, the article suggested that it was not conceptually correct to say the nci had no goodwill. If $120m is the goodwill attached to the parent's 80% holding, then the nci theoretical goodwill should be a quarter of that value 20% being one quarter of 80% That's where the $30 comes from The article set up some (in my humble view) ridiculous scenaria where the nci had been valued on a proportional basis but realistically the goodwill attributable to them was substantially greater than the goodwill attributable to the parent This virtual goodwill was added to the calculated value for the parent's goodwill, that total then added to the carrying value of the subsidiary's net assets and that total in turn was then compared with recoverable amount to determine whether there was any impairment In the example that you have given, having calculated the $76 impairment, has the answer then gone further and said that, of this amount, $30 is attributable to the nci and the remaining $46 is therefore allocated to the parent? And if you had completely ignored the nci virtual goodwill, would you not have arrived at the same $46 impairment attributable to the parent?