Issued: March 30, 2012
Impact: All US GAAP

Issue

Filers have created a number of extension elements related to various financial reporting threshold percentage concepts. These concepts can pertain to different disclosure topics (accounting policy, income tax, segment reporting, pension and etc.). Below is a list of common concepts along with underlying disclosure:

  • Threshold for ASC 740 income tax recognition for uncertain tax positions (more likely than not)
  • Threshold for disclosing major customers
  • Threshold of revenue, profit/(loss) and total assets for identifying reportable segments
  • Threshold of net actuarial gains/(losses) subject to amortization (greater of projected benefit obligation and plan assets) for pension disclosure
  • Threshold for concentration of credit risk
  • Threshold for separate line item reporting caption for Balance Sheet (current assets/liabilities, Noncurrent assets/liabilities)
  • Ownership percentage threshold investments in affiliates accounted for under equity method

These types of elements are not defined in the taxonomy.  Should the filers add these values into their filings?

Recommendation

If the threshold is defined as a constant in accounting standards or is always the same across all companies, then these numbers do not have to be reported. If the threshold is a company-defined threshold, then the value should be reported.