BDO Knows: FASB Issues ASU on Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes – ASC 740

On December 18, 2019, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update ASU 2019-12 on Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes. The decisions reflected in the ASU update specific areas of ASC 740, Income Taxes, to reduce complexity while maintaining or improving the usefulness of the information provided to users of financial statements.

 

Background

At its April 10, 2019, meeting, the FASB decided to add a project to its technical agenda to address simplifications to the accounting rules for income taxes under ASC 740. The project is part of the board’s overall Simplification Initiative. The objective of the Simplification Initiative is to identify, evaluate, and improve areas of GAAP for which cost and complexity can be reduced while maintaining or improving the usefulness of the information required to be reported by an entity. A draft ASU was issued by the FASB in May 2019 with 24 comment letters provided by stakeholders at the end of June 2019.

 

Simplification Initiatives

The board decided to remove the following exceptions from ASC 740, Income Taxes:

1. The exception to the incremental approach for intraperiod tax allocation when there is a loss from continuing operations and income or a gain from other items (for example, discontinued operations or other comprehensive income).^[1] 

The removal of this exception simplifies intraperiod allocation. Now entities will determine the tax effect of pre-tax income or loss from continuing operations without consideration of the tax effects of other items that are not included in continuing operations.

An example of the original accounting and post-simplification accounting is as follows:

Assume a U.S. corporation has a loss carryover of $5,000 (tax-effected) at the beginning of the year and a full valuation allowance of $5,000. The entity has a pre-tax loss of $1,000 ($250 tax-effected) from continuing operations and $1,000 ($250 tax-effected) of income in Other Comprehensive Income (OCI). The entity determined that a full valuation allowance is required at the end of the year.

Under the original accounting for intraperiod tax allocation, the entity would have recorded the following entries, which result in an overall net tax provision of zero:

Debit: Tax Expense – OCI   ……………………………………………………………………………   $250
Credit:  Continuing Operations Benefit   ……………………………………………………...   $250

The original accounting would require that the income from OCI be considered to determine the release of the valuation allowance to continuing operations in a situation where there is a loss from continuing operations for which no benefit would be recorded.

Under ASU 2019-12, no tax benefit is recorded in continuing operations and no tax expense is recorded in OCI for the above example.

 

3. The exception to the ability not to recognize a deferred tax liability for a foreign subsidiary when a foreign equity method investment becomes a subsidiary (therefore, an entity would have the ability to assert indefinite reinvestment for the entire basis difference of a subsidiary). 

Pre-simplification accounting required an entity to continue to reflect a deferred tax liability for the outside basis difference in a foreign equity method investment, even where the investee becomes a subsidiary.
 

4. The exception to the general methodology for calculating income taxes in an interim period when a year-to-date loss exceeds the anticipated loss for the year.

The removal of this exception allows an entity to record a benefit for a year-to-date loss in excess of its forecasted loss. Pre-simplification accounting limited the tax benefit in an interim period to the tax benefit of the forecasted loss in cases where the effective tax rate is higher than the statutory rate due to permanent differences or a foreign tax rate differential.

An example of the original accounting and post-simplification accounting is as follows:^[2]

For the full fiscal year, an entity anticipates an ordinary loss of $100,000. The entity operates entirely in one jurisdiction, where the tax rate is 50 percent. A total of $10,000 in tax credits is anticipated for the fiscal year.  The company does not anticipate any events that do not have tax consequences.
 
If there is a recognizable tax benefit for the loss and the tax credits, the estimated annual effective tax rate that applies to the ordinary loss would be computed as follows.

The entity has the following year-to date ordinary income and losses for the following interim periods:

 

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Year-to-date Ordinary income/(loss)	$20,000	$(60,000)	$(140,000)	$(100,000)

 

The full tax benefit of the anticipated ordinary loss and the anticipated tax credits will be realized through carryback. The full tax benefit of the maximum year-to-date ordinary loss can also be realized through carryback.
 
Given these facts, how should the interim reporting guidance be applied?

 

 Answer Pre-Simplification:

 

With Simplification:

 

The amendments in ASU 2019-12 also simplify the accounting for income taxes by:

1. Requiring that an entity recognize a franchise tax (or similar tax) that is partially based on income as an income-based tax and account for any incremental amount incurred as a non-income-based tax.
2. Requiring that an entity evaluate when a step up in the tax basis of goodwill should be considered part of a business combination in which the book goodwill was originally recognized or should be considered a separate transaction. Note, the amount of a deferred tax asset recorded in a business combination may differ from the amount recorded in a separate transaction.

 

Factors that may indicate that the step up in tax basis relates to a separate transaction include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. A significant lapse in time between the transactions has occurred.
2. The tax basis in the newly created goodwill is not the direct result of settlement of liabilities recorded in connection with the acquisition.
3. The step up in tax basis is based on a valuation of the goodwill or business after the date of the business combination.
4. The transaction resulting in the step up in tax basis requires more than a simple tax election.
5. The entity must incur a cash tax cost or sacrifice existing tax attributes to achieve the step up in tax basis.
6. The transaction resulting in the step up in tax basis was not contemplated at the time of the business combination.

 

3. Specifying that an entity (or entities), in the separate financial statements, is not required to allocate the consolidated amount of current and deferred tax expense to a legal entity that is not subject to tax. However, an entity may elect^[4] to do so (on an entity-by-entity basis) for a legal entity that is both not subject to tax and disregarded by the taxing authority (for example, disregarded entities such as single-member limited liability companies).
4. Requiring that an entity reflect the effect of an enacted change in tax laws or rates in the annual effective tax rate computation in the interim period that includes the enactment date.

5. Making minor codification improvements for income taxes related to employee stock ownership plans and investments in qualified affordable housing projects accounted for using the equity method.

 

Transition and Effective Date

For public business entities, the amendments in the ASU 2019-12 are effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2020. For all other entities, the amendments are effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2021, and interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2022.
 
Early adoption of the amendments is permitted, including adoption in any interim period for (1) public business entities for periods for which financial statements have not yet been issued and (2) all other entities for periods for which financial statements have not yet been made available for issuance. An entity that elects to early adopt the amendments in an interim period should reflect any adjustments as of the beginning of the annual period that includes that interim period. Additionally, an entity that elects early adoption must adopt all the amendments in the same period.
 
The amendments in ASU 2019-12 related to separate financial statements of legal entities that are not subject to tax should be applied on a retrospective basis for all periods presented.
 
The amendments related to changes in ownership of foreign equity method investments or foreign subsidiaries should be applied on a modified retrospective basis through a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings as of the beginning of the fiscal year of adoption.
 
The amendments related to franchise taxes that are partially based on income should be applied on either a retrospective basis for all periods presented or a modified retrospective basis through a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings as of the beginning of the fiscal year of adoption.
 
All other amendments should be applied on a prospective basis.

 

How BDO Can Help

BDO can assist clients with the evaluation of the changes in ASC 740 to their particular fact patterns, including appropriate disclosures that should be included in financial statements.