SEC and FASB Update GAAP Taxonomy for 2016

The Securities and Exchange Commission has accepted the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s 2016 GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy.

FASB’s staff is responsible for ongoing development and maintenance of the GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy, which is used by public issuers registered with the SEC. Every year, FASB updates the taxonomy to reflect new accounting standards updates and other related improvements and enhancements.

The GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy is a list of computer-readable tags in Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, format that allows companies to tag the thousands of pieces of financial data used in financial statements and footnote disclosures. The tags enable computers to automatically search for, assemble, and process data so it can be accessed and analyzed more easily by investors, analysts, regulators, and others.

Those interested in learning more about the 2016 GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy can participate in a live CPE webcast from FASB, 2016 GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy Changes and Beyond, and SEC Update. Offered free of charge, the webcast takes place on Tuesday, April 5, 2016, from 1:00 to 2:15 p.m. EDT. Participants in the live broadcast will be eligible for up to 1.5 hours of CPE credit, although CPE credit is not available for group viewing of the live broadcast. To register or to learn more about the webcast, click here.

In connection with the 2016 Taxonomy Release, FASB’s Taxonomy staff has issued several final 2016 XBRL Taxonomy Implementation Guides.  Those guides can be found on the XBRL Taxonomy Implementation Guide Page and include:

• Disposal Groups and Discontinued Operations
• Insurance: Concentration of Credit Risk Disclosures

• Liquidation Basis of Accounting
• Measurement Date Practical Expedient for Defined Benefit Plans
• Segment Reporting
• Disclosures about Offsetting Assets and Liabilities
• Other Comprehensive Income
• Notional Amount Disclosures
• Repurchase to Maturity Transactions and Repurchase Financings, and
• Short-duration Insurance Contracts
• Subsequent Events.

For more information visit the Taxonomy (XBRL) page. Questions about using the taxonomy for creating and submitting XBRL-tagged interactive data files in compliance with SEC rules should be directed to the Commission. The SEC contact details and guidance are available at the SEC’s portal on XBRL.

The SEC said Monday that its EDGAR system was upgraded to Release 16.0.3 and now supports the 2016 US GAAP, 2016 Country, 2016 Currency and 2016 EXCH taxonomies. The 2016 US GAAP financial reporting taxonomy reflects the same taxonomy that FASB made available on its website on Dec. 17, 2015. The 2016 Country, 2016 Currency and 2016 EXCH taxonomies reflect the same taxonomies the staff posted for public comment on September 1, 2015. The SEC staff does not anticipate that the removals of the 2014 US GAAP financial reporting taxonomy, the 2012 Country, the 2012 Currency and the 2014 EXCH taxonomies will occur before June 2016.

See http://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/edgartaxonomies.shtml for a complete listing of supported standard taxonomies.
The SEC staff is strongly encouraging companies to use the most recent version of taxonomy releases for their XBRL exhibits to take advantage of the most up-to-date tags related to new accounting standards and other improvements. The staff suggests that filers consider transitioning to the 2016 taxonomies for the earliest reporting period that ends after March 7, 2016, but not for reporting periods that end before March 7, 2016.

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