The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has released an “omnibus” statement providing guidance on a wide range of accounting and financial reporting issues that have been uncovered during the implementation and application of some of GASB’s earlier pronouncements for state and local governments.
• Blending a component unit in occurences in which the main government is a business type of activity reporting in a single column for financial statement presentation;
• Classifying real estate held by insurance entities;
• Measuring some money market investments and participating interest-earning investment contracts at amortized cost;
• Reporting amounts that used to be reported as goodwill and “negative” goodwill;
• Timing the measurement of pension and other post-employment benefits (OPEB) liabilities and the related expenditures recognized in financial statements that were prepared using the current financial resources measurement focus;
• Recognizing on-behalf payments for pensions or OPEB in employer financial statements; and
• Simplifying certain aspects of the alternative measurement method for OPEB.
Statement 85 also covers issues similar to those found in Statements No. 78, Pensions Provided through Certain Multiple-Employer Defined Benefit Pension Plans, and No. 82, Pension Issues, including:
• Presenting payroll-related measures in required supplementary information by OPEB plans and employers that provide OPEB;
• Classifying employer-paid member contributions for OPEB; and
• Accounting and financial reporting for OPEB provided through certain multiple-employer defined benefit OPEB plans.
The provisions take effect for periods beginning after June 15, 2017, though GASB is encouraging earlier application of them.
