Accumulated other comprehensive income

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Note: Reference cited below, FAS130, remains the most current accounting literature in the United States on this topic.

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In 1997 the United States Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Statement on Financial Accounting Standards No. 130 entitled "Reporting Comprehensive Income". This statement required all income statement items to be reported either as a regular item in the income statement or a special item as other comprehensive income. It is commonly referred to as FAS130. The International Accounting Standards Board issued the International Accounting Standard 1 with a slightly different terminology but an conceptually identical meaning.

Comprehensive income

Comprehensive income (IAS 1: "Total Comprehensive Income") is the total non-owner change in equity for a reporting period. This change encompasses all changes in equity other than transactions from owners and distributions to owners. Most of these changes appear in the income statement. A few special types of gains and losses are not shown in the income statement but as special items in shareholder equity section of the balance sheet.

Since these comprehensive income items are not closed to retained earnings each period they accumulate as shareholder equity items and thus are entitled "Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income" and is sometimes referred to as "AOCI".

Accumulated other comprehensive income is a subsection in equity where "other comprehensive income" is accumulated (summed or "aggregated").

The balance of AOCI is presented in the Equity section of the Balance Sheet as is the Retained Earnings balance, which aggregates past and current Earnings, and past and current Dividends.

Other comprehensive income

Other comprehensive income is the difference between net income as in the income statement (profit or loss Account) and comprehensive income, and represents the certain gains and losses of the enterprise not recognized in the P&L Account. It is commonly referred to as "OCI" although the word comprehensive has no meaning as can be seen from the definitory equation. OCI when translated into another language and back into English means "other income" only.

In practice, it comprises the following items:

  1. Unrealized gains and losses on available for sale securities [IAS 39/ "FAS 115" – "Accounting for Certain Investments in Debt Securities"]
  2. Gains and losses on derivatives held as cash flow hedges (only for effective portions) [IAS 39/ "FAS 133" – "Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities"]
  3. Gains and losses resulting from translating the financial statements of foreign subsidiaries (from foreign currency to the presentation currency) [IAS 21/ "FAS 52" – "Foreign Currency Translation"],
  4. Actuarial gains and losses on defined benefit plans recognized (Minimum pension liability adjustments) [IAS 19/ "FAS 158" – "Employers' Accounting For Defined Benefit Pension And Other Postretirement Plans"]
  5. Changes in the revaluation surplus [IAS 16 and IAS 38].

While the AOCI balance is presented in Equity section of the balance sheet, the annual accounting entries, as flows, are presented sometimes in a Statement of Comprehensive Income. This statement expands the traditional income statement beyond earnings to include OCI in order to present comprehensive income.

Under the revised IAS 1, all non-owner changes in equity (comprehensive income) must be presented either in one Statement of comprehensive income or in two statements (a separate income statement and a statement of comprehensive income).

Reclassification to profit or loss (P&L)

Flows presented initially in OCI sometimes are reclassified into Earnings (Profit or Loss) when certain conditions are met. For the five types of OCI described above, the triggers for reclassification are presented in the accounting standard that gives rise to the OCI flow.

Alterations to definition of OCI

In the United States further alterations to this OCI definition occur when a new standard (including a revision of a previously issued accounting standard) identifies an item that can be measured, should be measured in the financial statements, represents a "flow" variable rather than a stock, or snapshot, variable, and does not represent a flow variable that should be presented in the Income Statement as a component of Earnings. The flow variable that is both measurable and should be recognized is then added to the list above of items that a reporting entity would include in AOCI.

In the third quarter of 2008 the United States Securities and Exchange Commission received several proposals to allow the recognition in AOCI of certain fair value changes on financial instruments. This proposal was initially well received by representatives of the banking community who felt that Earnings recognition of these fair value changes during the concurrent "credit meltdown of 2008" would be inappropriate. The effect of this proposal, on balance, would be to remove sizeable losses from Earnings and thus Retained Earnings of banks, and assist them in preserving their regulatory capital. The regulatory capital of banks in the US and generally worldwide includes contributed equity capital and retained earnings but excludes AOCI, even though it is reported as a component of the Equity section of the Balance Sheet.

The FASB released an Accounting Standards Update on January 5, 2016 that changes items reported in OCI. Previously, equity securities could be classified as available for sale, and unrecognized gains and losses on these securities appeared in OCI. However, per this update, there is no longer an available for sale classification for equity securities if the fair value of these securities can be readily determined. Changes in the fair value of equity investments in unconsolidated entities flow through earnings for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017. [1]

See also

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International Financial Reporting Standards Technical standard

International Financial Reporting Standards, commonly called IFRS, are accounting standards issued by the IFRS Foundation and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). They constitute a standardised way of describing the company's financial performance and position so that company financial statements are understandable and comparable across international boundaries. They are particularly relevant for companies with shares or securities listed on a public stock exchange.

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Historical cost

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This page is an index of accounting topics.

Income statement

An income statement or profit and loss account is one of the financial statements of a company and shows the company's revenues and expenses during a particular period.

Mark-to-market accounting Accounting practice

Mark-to-market or fair value accounting refers to accounting for the "fair value" of an asset or liability based on the current market price, or the price for similar assets and liabilities, or based on another objectively assessed "fair" value. Fair value accounting has been a part of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the United States since the early 1990s, and is now regarded as the "gold standard" in some circles. Failure to use it is viewed as the cause of the Orange County Bankruptcy, even though its use is considered to be one of the reasons for the Enron scandal and the eventual bankruptcy of the company, as well as the closure of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen.

Financial accounting

Financial accounting is the field of accounting concerned with the summary, analysis and reporting of financial transactions related to a business. This involves the preparation of financial statements available for public use. Stockholders, suppliers, banks, employees, government agencies, business owners, and other stakeholders are examples of people interested in receiving such information for decision making purposes.

Cash flow statement

In financial accounting, a cash flow statement, also known as statement of cash flows, is a financial statement that shows how changes in balance sheet accounts and income affect cash and cash equivalents, and breaks the analysis down to operating, investing, and financing activities. Essentially, the cash flow statement is concerned with the flow of cash in and out of the business. As an analytical tool, the statement of cash flows is useful in determining the short-term viability of a company, particularly its ability to pay bills. International Accounting Standard 7 is the International Accounting Standard that deals with cash flow statements.

Chart of accounts

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Statement of changes in equity

A statement of changes in equity and similarly the statement of changes in owner's equity for a sole trader, statement of changes in partners' equity for a partnership, statement of changes in shareholders' equity for a company or statement of changes in taxpayers' equity for government financial statements is one of the four basic financial statements.

Comprehensive income

In a companies' financial reporting, comprehensive Income "includes all changes in equity during a period except those resulting from investments by owners and distributions to owners". Because that use excludes the effects of changing ownership interest, an economic measure of comprehensive income is necessary for financial analysis from the shareholders' point of view

Available for sale

Available for sale (AFS) is an accounting term used to classify financial assets. AFS is one of the three general classifications, along with held for trading and held to maturity, under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, specifically FAS 115. The IFRS also includes a fourth classification: loans and receivables.

Hedge accounting

Hedge accounting is an accountancy practice, the aim of which is to provide an offset to the mark-to-market movement of the derivative in the profit and loss account. There are two types of hedge recognized. For a fair value hedge, the offset is achieved either by marking-to-market an asset or a liability which offsets the P&L movement of the derivative. For a cash flow hedge, some of the derivative volatility is placed into a separate component of the entity's equity called the cash flow hedge reserve. Where a hedge relationship is effective, most of the mark-to-market derivative volatility will be offset in the profit and loss account. Hedge accounting entails much compliance - involving documenting the hedge relationship and both prospectively and retrospectively proving that the hedge relationship is effective.

Launched prior to the millennium, FAS 133 Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities provided an "integrated accounting framework for derivative instruments and hedging activities."

A foreign exchange hedge is a method used by companies to eliminate or "hedge" their foreign exchange risk resulting from transactions in foreign currencies. This is done using either the cash flow hedge or the fair value method. The accounting rules for this are addressed by both the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and by the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles as well as other national accounting standards.

In finance and accounting, Hedge relationship describes the criteria for including the fair value of derivatives on balance sheet as part of an effort to regulate and normalize the use of hedging in corporate accounting. A hedge relationship can be conceptualized as a type of insurance contract for risk mitigation on an underlying asset and a set of tests and methods for valuation of this insurer/insuree contract in corporate accounting and reporting.

The clean surplus accounting method provides elements of a forecasting model that yields price as a function of earnings, expected returns, and change in book value. The theory's primary use is to estimate the value of a company’s shares. The secondary use is to estimate the cost of capital, as an alternative to e.g. the CAPM. The "clean surplus" is calculated by not including transactions with shareholders when calculating returns; whereas standard accounting for financial statements requires that the change in book value equal earnings minus dividends.

IAS 16

International Accounting Standard 16 Property, Plant and Equipment or IAS 16 is an international financial reporting standard adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). It concerns accounting for property, plant and equipment, including recognition, determination of their carrying amounts, and the depreciation charges and impairment losses to be recognised in relation to them.

IFRS 9

IFRS 9 is an International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) published by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). It addresses the accounting for financial instruments. It contains three main topics: classification and measurement of financial instruments, impairment of financial assets and hedge accounting. The standard came into force on 1 January 2018, replacing the earlier IFRS for financial instruments, IAS 39.

References

  1. "1.1 Background on CECL".