The Financial Standards Accounting Board (FASB) is about to issue an Exposure Draft on its project “Disclosures by Business Entities about Government Assistance”. One of the primary objectives of the FASB’s project on new disclosure requirements for government incentives is to provide transparency where none exists today.
It’s no surprise that no one is talking about a new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) pronouncement on government incentives that’s coming down the pike. For years, major corporations have been burying how they account for government incentives on their balance sheets & footnotes to their financial statements under some random line item like “Other Assets”.
The concept of accountability isn’t new — especially when discussing taxpayer dollars and where they are spent by government agencies. Governments are under constant scrutiny regarding tax revenue and expenditures from their constituents, the media, and the public as a whole. However, there has been an increasing call for accountability when it comes to corporate tax credits and incentives for economic development.