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As Christmas Eve approached with vacations and holiday shopping in full swing, President Trump signed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act and the SEC promptly issued guidance to public companies on related accounting matters. Perhaps most important to corporate lawyers, the SEC guidance in Compliance and Disclosure Interpretation No. 110.02 noted that the re-measurement of a deferred tax asset (“DTA”) to incorporate the effects of newly enacted tax rates or other provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“Act”) does NOT trigger an obligation to file an 8-K under Item 2.06.  The SEC reasoned as follows:

The re-measurement of a DTA to reflect the impact of a change in tax rate or tax laws is not an impairment under ASC Topic 740. However, the enactment of new tax rates or tax laws could have implications for a registrant’s financial statements, including whether it is more likely than not that the DTA will be realized.  As discussed in Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 (Dec. 22, 2017), a registrant that has not yet completed its accounting for certain income tax effects of the Act by the time the registrant issues its financial statements for the period that includes December 22, 2017 (the date of the Act’s enactment) may apply a “measurement period” approach to complying with ASC Topic 740.  Registrants employing the “measurement period” approach as contemplated by SAB 118 that conclude that an impairment has occurred due to changes resulting from the enactment of the Act may rely on the Instruction to Item 2.06 and disclose the impairment, or a provisional amount with respect to that possible impairment, in its next periodic report.

As indicated by the C&DI, the SEC has also issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 on the topic of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Essentially, SAB 118 addresses the issue where registrants encounter a situation in which the accounting for certain income tax effects of the Act will be incomplete by the time financial statements are issued for the reporting period that includes the enactment date of December 22, 2017. The guidance is centered around the following question and answer (footnotes omitted):

Question 1: If the accounting for certain income tax effects of the Act is not completed by the time Company A issues its financial statements that include the reporting period in which the Act was enacted, what amounts should Company A include in its financial statements for those income tax effects for which the accounting under ASC Topic 740 is incomplete?

Interpretive Response: To the extent that Company A’s accounting for certain income tax effects of the Act is incomplete, but Company A can determine a reasonable estimate for those effects, the staff would not object to Company A including in its financial statements the reasonable estimate that it had determined. Conversely, the staff does not believe it would be appropriate for Company A to exclude a reasonable estimate from its financial statements to the extent a reasonable estimate had been determined. The reasonable estimate should be included in Company A’s financial statements in the first reporting period in which Company A was able to determine the reasonable estimate. The reasonable estimate would be reported as a provisional amount in Company A’s financial statements during a “measurement period.” The measurement period is described in further detail below.

The staff believes reporting provisional amounts for certain income tax effects of the Act will address circumstances in which an entity does not have the necessary information available, prepared, or analyzed (including computations) in reasonable detail to complete the accounting under ASC Topic 740.

An entity may not have the necessary information available, prepared, or analyzed (including computations) for certain income tax effects of the Act in order to determine a reasonable estimate to be included as provisional amounts. The staff would expect no related provisional amounts would be included in an entity’s financial statements for those specific income tax effects for which a reasonable estimate cannot be determined. In circumstances in which provisional amounts cannot be prepared, the staff believes an entity should continue to apply ASC Topic 740 (e.g., when recognizing and measuring current and deferred taxes) based on the provisions of the tax laws that were in effect immediately prior to the Act being enacted. That is, the staff does not believe an entity should adjust its current or deferred taxes for those tax effects of the Act until a reasonable estimate can be determined.

Therefore, to summarize the above and for the avoidance of doubt, in Company A’s financial statements that include the reporting period in which the Act was enacted, Company A must first reflect the income tax effects of the Act in which the accounting under ASC Topic 740 is complete. These completed amounts would not be provisional amounts. Company A would then also report provisional amounts for those specific income tax effects of the Act for which the accounting under ASC Topic 740 will be incomplete but a reasonable estimate can be determined. For any specific income tax effects of the Act for which a reasonable estimate cannot be determined, Company A would not report provisional amounts and would continue to apply ASC Topic 740 based on the provisions of the tax laws that were in effect immediately prior to the Act being enacted. For those income tax effects for which Company A was not able to determine a reasonable estimate (such that no related provisional amount was reported for the reporting period in which the Act was enacted), Company A would report provisional amounts in the first reporting period in which a reasonable estimate can be determined.

Some of the discussion following the above analysis in SAB No. 118 has been omitted.

The second question deals with disclosure:

Question 2: If an entity accounts for certain income tax effects of the Act under a measurement period approach, what disclosures should be provided?

Interpretive Response: The staff believes an entity should include financial statement disclosures to provide information about the material financial reporting impacts of the Act for which the accounting under ASC Topic 740 is incomplete, including:

1.(a) Qualitative disclosures of the income tax effects of the Act for which the accounting is incomplete;

2.(b) Disclosures of items reported as provisional amounts;

3.(c) Disclosures of existing current or deferred tax amounts for which the income tax effects of the Act have not been completed;

4.(d) The reason why the initial accounting is incomplete;

5.(e) The additional information that is needed to be obtained, prepared, or analyzed in order to complete the accounting requirements under ASC Topic 740;

6.(f) The nature and amount of any measurement period adjustments recognized during the reporting period;

7.(g) The effect of measurement period adjustments on the effective tax rate; and

8.(h) When the accounting for the income tax effects of the Act has been completed.