Agenda - Council - 06/09/2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING UPDATES GASB STATEMENT N0.68 -ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL REPORTING FOR PENSIONS -AN AMENDMENT OF GASB STATEMENT NOS. 27 AND 50 The primary objective of this statement is to improve accounting and financial reporting by state and local governments for pensions. This statement replaces the requirements of GASB Statement Nos. 27 and No. 50, as they relate to pensions that are provided through pension plans administered as trusts or equivalent arrangements that meet certain criteria. The requirements of GASB Statement Nos. 27 and No. 50 remain applicable for pensions that are not covered by the scope of this statement. This statement establishes standards for measuring and recognizing liabilities, deferred outflows of resources, deferred inflows of resources, and expenses/expenditures. In addition, this statement details the recognition and disclosure requirements for employers with liabilities (payables) to a defined benefit pension plan and for employers whose employees are provided with defined contribution pensions. This statement also addresses circumstances in which a non -employer entity has a legal requirement to make contributions directly to a pension plan. This statement is effective for financial statements for fiscal years beginning after June 15, 2014. Earlier application is encouraged. Included in this statement are major changes in how employers that participate in cost-sharing pension plans, such as the Teachers' Retirement Association (TRA) and PERA, account for pension benefit expenses and liabilities. In financial statements prepared using the economic resources measurement focus and accrual basis of accounting (government -wide and proprietary funds), a cost-sharing employer that does not have a special funding situation is required to recognize a liability for its proportionate share of the net pension liability of all employers with benefits provided through the pension plan. A cost-sharing employer is required to recognize pension expense and report deferred outflows of resources and deferred inflows of resources related to pensions for its proportionate share of collective pension expense and collective deferred outflows of resources and deferred inflows of resources related to pensions. In addition, the effects of (1) a change in the employer's proportion of the collective net pension liability and (2) differences during the measurement period between the employer's contributions and its proportionate share of the total of contributions from employers included in the collective net pension liability are required to be determined. These effects are required to be recognized in the employer's pension expense in a systematic and rational manner over a closed period equal to the average of the expected remaining service lives of all active and inactive employees that are provided with pensions through the pension plan. GASB STATEMENT NO. 72 - FAIR VALUE MEASURE AND APPLICATION GASB Statement No. 72 addresses accounting and financial reporting issues related to fair value measurements. The requirements of this statement are intended to enhance comparability among government financial statements by requiring certain assets and liabilities be reported at fair value, using a consistent defmition of fair value and accepted valuation techniques. The requirements of this statement are effective for financial statements for periods beginning after June 15, 2015, with earlier application encouraged. GASB Statement No. 72 defines fair value as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. Fair value measurements are generally assumed to take place in the government's principal or most advantageous market, taking into account the highest and best use for a nonfinancial asset, and assuming market participants would act in their economic best interest. The statement requires a government to use measurement techniques that are appropriate under the circumstances and for which sufficient data are available to measure fair value; consistent with a market, (replacement) cost, or income approach. It also establishes a hierarchy of inputs to be used in valuation techniques. -19-