The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted the 2011 U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy.
The U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy contains updates for accounting standards and other improvements to the official taxonomy previously in use by SEC issuers. The taxonomy, which uses Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, is available
The U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy is a list of computer-readable tags in XBRL that allows companies to tag precisely the thousands of pieces of financial data that are included in typical long-form financial statements and related footnote disclosures. The tags allow computers to automatically search for, assemble and process data so it can be readily accessed and analyzed by investors, analysts, journalists and regulators. The taxonomy contains updates for accounting standards and other improvements to the official taxonomy previously in use by SEC issuers.
The Financial Accounting Foundation, which oversees the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, is responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the taxonomy for public issuers registered with the SEC. The 2009 taxonomy currently in use by SEC issuers was developed by XBRL US Inc., an independent nonprofit organization with research, development and education programs facilitating the widespread adoption of XBRL in the United States.
FASB staff provided technical accounting standards support to XBRL US during the development of the 2009 taxonomy. In early 2010, the FAF assumed maintenance responsibilities for the taxonomy, and, along with FASB, assembled a team of technical staff dedicated to updating the taxonomy for changes in U.S. GAAP, identifying best practices in taxonomy extensions, and technical enhancements.
A listing of all taxonomies available for use, including the 2011 US GAAP taxonomy, is located at
The EDGAR validation and Previewer have been updated to incorporate the new taxonomies. The Interactive Data Test Suite used by software developers has also been updated.
The SEC staff is strongly encouraging companies to use the most recent version of the U.S. GAAP taxonomy release for their interactive data submissions to take advantage of the most up-to-date tags related to new accounting standards and other improvements. However, due to the timing of the release of the U.S. GAAP 2011 taxonomy in conjunction with the phase-in of the rule, companies will be permitted to continue to use the U.S. GAAP 2009 taxonomy.
