GASB Pronouncements Implemented
The below list of GASB Pronouncements are not all inclusive. Refer to the GASB website for additional pronouncements and information.
34 – Basic Financial Statements—and Management’s Discussion and Analysis—for State and Local Governments
This Statement establishes financial reporting standards for state and local governments, including states, cities, towns, villages, and special-purpose governments such as school districts and public utilities. It establishes that the basic financial statements and required supplementary information (RSI) for general purpose governments should consist of:
- Management’s discussion and analysis
- Basic Financial Statements
- Required Supplementary Information
51 – Accounting and Financial Reporting for Intangible Assets
This Statement requires that all intangible assets not specifically excluded by its scope provisions be classified as capital assets. Accordingly, existing authoritative guidance related to the accounting and financial reporting for capital assets should be applied to these intangible assets, as applicable. This Statement also provides authoritative guidance that specifically addresses the nature of these intangible assets. Such guidance should be applied in addition to the existing authoritative guidance for capital assets.
This Statement also establishes guidance specific to intangible assets related to amortization. This Statement provides guidance on determining the useful life of intangible assets when the length of their life is limited by contractual or legal provisions. If there are no factors that limit the useful life of an intangible asset, the Statement provides that the intangible asset be considered to have an indefinite useful life. Intangible assets with indefinite useful lives should not be amortized unless their useful life is subsequently determined to no longer be indefinite due to a change in circumstances.
54 – Fund Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Type Definitions
This Statement establishes fund balance classifications that comprise a hierarchy based primarily on the extent to which a government is bound to observe constraints imposed upon the use of the resources reported in governmental funds.
This Statement also provides guidance for classifying stabilization amounts on the face of the balance sheet and requires disclosure of certain information about stabilization arrangements in the notes to the financial statements.
The definitions of the general fund, special revenue fund type, capital projects fund type, debt service fund type, and permanent fund type are clarified by the provisions in this Statement.
68 – Accounting and Financial Report for Pensions — An Amendment of GASB Statement No. 27
This Statement revises existing standards of financial reporting for most pension plans. This Statement and Statement 67 establish a definition of a pension plan that reflects the primary activities associated with the pension arrangement—determining pensions, accumulating and managing assets dedicated for pensions, and paying benefits to plan members as they come due.
75 – Account and Financial Reporting for Postemployment Benefits Other Than Pensions
This Statement establishes standards for recognizing and measuring liabilities, deferred outflows of resources, deferred inflows of resources, and expense/expenditures. For defined benefit OPEB, this Statement identifies the methods and assumptions that are required to be used to project benefit payments, discount projected benefit payments to their actuarial present value, and attribute that present value to periods of employee service. Note disclosure and required supplementary information requirements about defined benefit OPEB also are addressed.
83 – Certain Asset Retirement Obligations
This Statement addresses accounting and financial reporting for certain asset retirement obligations (AROs). An ARO is a legally enforceable liability associated with the retirement of a tangible capital asset. A government that has legal obligations to perform future asset retirement activities related to its tangible capital assets should recognize a liability based on the guidance in this Statement.
This Statement establishes criteria for determining the timing and pattern of recognition of a liability and a corresponding deferred outflow of resources for AROs. This Statement requires that recognition occur when the liability is both incurred and reasonably estimable.
This Statement also requires disclosure of information about the nature of a government’s AROs, the methods and assumptions used for the estimates of the liabilities, and the estimated remaining useful life of the associated tangible capital assets.
84 – Fiduciary Activities (Effective FY 2021)
This Statement establishes criteria for identifying fiduciary activities of all state and local governments. The focus of the criteria generally is on (1) whether a government is controlling the assets of the fiduciary activity and (2) the beneficiaries with whom a fiduciary relationship exists. Separate criteria are included to identify fiduciary component units and postemployment benefit arrangements that are fiduciary activities.
This Statement describes four fiduciary funds that should be reported, if applicable: (1) pension (and other employee benefit) trust funds, (2) investment trust funds, (3) private-purpose trust funds, and (4) custodial funds. Custodial funds generally should report fiduciary activities that are not held in a trust or equivalent arrangement that meets specific criteria.
This Statement also provides for recognition of a liability to the beneficiaries in a fiduciary fund when an event has occurred that compels the government to disburse fiduciary resources. Events that compel a government to disburse fiduciary resources occur when a demand for the resources has been made or when no further action, approval, or condition is required to be taken or met by the beneficiary to release the assets.
87 – Leases (Effective FY 2022)
This Statement increases the usefulness of governments’ financial statements by requiring recognition of certain lease assets and liabilities for leases that previously were classified as operating leases and recognized as inflows of resources or outflows of resources based on the payment provisions of the contract. It establishes a single model for lease accounting based on the foundational principle that leases are financings of the right to use an underlying asset. Under this Statement, a lessee is required to recognize a lease liability and an intangible right-to-use lease asset, and a lessor is required to recognize a lease receivable and a deferred inflow of resources, thereby enhancing the relevance and consistency of information about governments’ leasing activities.
This Statement will increase the usefulness of governments’ financial statements by requiring reporting of certain lease liabilities that currently are not reported. It will enhance comparability of financial statements among governments by requiring lessees and lessors to report leases under a single model. This Statement also will enhance the decision-usefulness of the information provided to financial statement users by requiring notes to financial statements related to the timing, significance, and purpose of a government’s leasing arrangements.
89 – Accounting For Interest Cost Incurred Before The End Of A Construction Period
This Statement establishes accounting requirements for interest cost incurred before the end of a construction period. As well, this Statement requires that interest cost incurred before the end of a construction period be recognized as an expense in the period in which the cost is incurred for financial statements prepared using the economic resources measurement focus. As a result, interest cost incurred before the end of a construction period will not be included in the historical cost of a capital asset reported in a business-type activity or enterprise fund.
This Statement also reiterates that in financial statements prepared using the current financial resources measurement focus, interest cost incurred before the end of a construction period should be recognized as an expenditure on a basis consistent with governmental fund accounting principles.
90 – Majority Equity Interests—An Amendment Of GASB Statements No. 14 And No. 61 (Effective FY 2021)
This Statement defines a majority equity interest and specifies that a majority equity interest in a legally separate organization should be reported as an investment if a government’s holding of the equity interest meets the definition of an investment. A majority equity interest that meets the definition of an investment should be measured using the equity method, unless it is held by a special-purpose government engaged only in fiduciary activities, a fiduciary fund, or an endowment (including permanent and term endowments) or permanent fund. Those governments and funds should measure the majority equity interest at fair value.
This Statement also requires that a component unit in which a government has a 100 percent equity interest account for its assets, deferred outflows of resources, liabilities, and deferred inflows of resources at acquisition value at the date the government acquired a 100 percent equity interest in the component unit. Transactions presented in flows statements of the component unit in that circumstance should include only transactions that occurred subsequent to the acquisition.
91 – Conduit Debt Obligations (Effective FY 2022)
This Statement achieves those objectives by clarifying the existing definition of a conduit debt obligation; establishing that a conduit debt obligation is not a liability of the issuer; establishing standards for accounting and financial reporting of additional commitments and voluntary commitments extended by issuers and arrangements associated with conduit debt obligations; and improving required note disclosures. This Statement also addresses arrangements—often characterized as leases—that are associated with conduit debt obligations.