Statement No. 77
Tax Abatement Disclosures
(Issued 08/15)
Financial statements prepared by state and local governments in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles provide citizens and taxpayers, legislative and oversight bodies, municipal bond analysts, and others with information they need to evaluate the financial health of governments, make decisions, and assess accountability. This information is intended, among other things, to assist these users of financial statements in assessing (1) whether a government’s current-year revenues were sufficient to pay for current-year services (known as interperiod equity), (2) whether a government complied with finance-related legal and contractual obligations, (3) where a government’s financial resources come from and how it uses them, and (4) a government’s financial position and economic condition and how they have changed over time.
Financial statement users need information about certain limitations on a government’s ability to raise resources. This includes limitations on revenue-raising capacity resulting from government programs that use tax abatements to induce behavior by individuals and entities that is beneficial to the government or its citizens. Tax abatements are widely used by state and local governments, particularly to encourage economic development. For financial reporting purposes, this Statement defines a tax abatement as resulting from an agreement between a government and an individual or entity in which the government promises to forgo tax revenues and the individual or entity promises to subsequently take a specific action that contributes to economic development or otherwise benefits the government or its citizens.
Although many governments offer tax abatements and provide information to the public about them, they do not always provide the information necessary to assess how tax abatements affect their financial position and results of operations, including their ability to raise resources in the future. This Statement requires disclosure of tax abatement information about (1) a reporting government’s own tax abatement agreements and (2) those that are entered into by other governments and that reduce the reporting government’s tax revenues.
This Statement requires governments that enter into tax abatement agreements to disclose the following information about the agreements:
- Brief descriptive information, such as the tax being abated, the authority under which tax abatements are provided, eligibility criteria, the mechanism by which taxes are abated, provisions for recapturing abated taxes, and the types of commitments made by tax abatement recipients
- The gross dollar amount of taxes abated during the period
- Commitments made by a government, other than to abate taxes, as part of a tax abatement agreement.
Tax abatement agreements of other governments should be organized by the government that entered into the tax abatement agreement and the specific tax being abated. Governments may disclose information for individual tax abatement agreements of other governments within the specific tax being abated. For those tax abatement agreements, a reporting government should disclose:
- The names of the governments that entered into the agreements
- The specific taxes being abated
- The gross dollar amount of taxes abated during the period.
The requirements of this Statement are effective for financial statements for periods beginning after December 15, 2015. Earlier application is encouraged.
How the Changes in This Statement Improve Financial Reporting
The requirements of this Statement improve financial reporting by giving users of financial statements essential information that is not consistently or comprehensively reported to the public at present. Disclosure of information about the nature and magnitude of tax abatements will make these transactions more transparent to financial statement users. As a result, users will be better equipped to understand (1) how tax abatements affect a government’s future ability to raise resources and meet its financial obligations and (2) the impact those abatements have on a government’s financial position and economic condition.
Unless otherwise specified, pronouncements of the GASB apply to financial reports of all state and local governmental entities, including general purpose governments; public benefit corporations and authorities; public employee retirement systems; and public utilities, hospitals and other healthcare providers, and colleges and universities. Paragraph 3 discusses the applicability of this Statement.