The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has released new standards aimed at improving the accounting and reporting of combinations and disposals of government operations for U.S. state and local governments.

GASB Statement No. 69, Government Combinations and Disposals of Government Operations, provides guidance for determining whether a specific government combination is a government merger, a government acquisition or a transfer of operations. The standard was approved on Jan. 8 and became available for download on GASB’s Web site Tuesday (see GASB Approves Standard for Government Combinations and Transfers of Operations).

The standard also provides guidance on using carrying values (generally, the amounts recognized in the pre-combination financial statements of the combining governments or operations) to measure the assets, deferred outflows of resources, liabilities, and deferred inflows of resources combined in a government merger or transfer of operations.

In addition, the standard provides guidance on the issue of measuring acquired assets, deferred outflows of resources, liabilities and deferred inflows of resources based upon their acquisition values in a government acquisition, as well as reporting the disposal of government operations that have been transferred or sold.

The requirements are effective for periods beginning after Dec. 15, 2013. GASB advised they should be applied on a prospective basis, and encouraged early application of the standard.