The purpose of this posting is to summarize the use of the US GAAP taxonomy ("UGT") deferred tax asset and liability elements. This posting is a continuation of the previous Deferred Taxes 1.0 and 1.1 discussions.
Conclusion
There are three pillars of Data Quality consisting of (i) UGT modeling, (ii) correct and consistent implementation by preparers, and (iii) data normalization. Based on the data gathered and analyzed below for deferred tax asset and liability UGT elements, it is apparent that there is a way to go on the first pillar of Data Quality.
The promulgated US generally accepted accounting principle ("US GAAP") concerning deferred taxes has been in effect for over twenty years and is generally not considered an overly complex accounting and financial reporting topic by most professionals. However, as analyzed below, financial statement issuers have difficulty in selecting the correct UGT elements for tagging their deferred tax asset and liability financial information as reported in their HTML financial statements prepared in accordance with US GAAP. The issues contributing to the incorrect tagging choices by preparers can be associated to poor UGT modeling (e.g., substantive changes made to UGT element definitions and relationships).
The EDGAR Filing Manual 6.6.24 states that "Definitions cannot be changed", which means that if a change to the substance of an element is enacted, the element should be deprecated and replaced with a new element. Generally, this is interpreted to mean that an element cannot have its substance restricted nor can an element be repurposed because to do so is to invalidate the data previously tagged with such element. An element's substance can be expanded to be more inclusive however because the data previously tagged with such element is still valid. As is demonstrated below, these fundamental modeling tenets have not been followed with respect to the UGT deferred tax asset and liability elements.
To improve the UGT modeling, providing simple definitions that clearly indicate the use of the element should be incorporated. For example, instead of Item No. 16 (below) Deferred Tax Liabilities, Net being defined as "Amount, after deferred tax asset, of deferred tax liability attributable to taxable differences, before jurisdictional netting." the element should be defined as "Total deferred tax liabilities in excess of total deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowance." Adding a sentence to the definition that "This element should never be used to tag a fact reported on the Balance Sheet." may prove beneficial to preparers.
Additionally, given the data quality issues observed below, the public database must be corrected to be useful. If the goal is to provide normalized data to the market, so that all users start from an even playing field, then the entity maintaining and providing the public database should make the necessary corrections prior to publishing a "normalized" database. The cost of such undertaking may be pushed down to the financial statement issuer, but until the data is normalized, the usability of the data is diminished.
Subject Population
The supporting statistics referred to herein were derived from financial statement and footnote disclosure data filed from January 1, 2014 to December 27, 2014 by 6,905 Companies in their Exhibit 101 to Form 10-K. The population of data is summarized as follows:
| Count | ||||||||
| ∑ No. of Companies that filed a Form 10-K | 7,217 | |||||||
| No. of Unique Companies that made the filings | 6,905 | |||||||
| Companies with more than one Form 10-K filing in a 12 month period | 312 | |||||||
| Filings - Form 10-K filed more than once in 12 month period by 312 Companies | 579 | |||||||
| Filings - Form 10-K that should have been Form 10-K/A | 277 | |||||||
| Filings - Form 10-K that should have been Form 10-KT or 10-KT/A | 7 | |||||||
| Filings - Form DEF-14A | 1 | 285 | ||||||
| Filings - Form 10-K correctly selected | 201 | |||||||
| Filings - Form 10-K actually filed more than once in 12 month period | 92 | |||||||
| Filings - HTML does not indicate Form type or SEC EDGAR system does not list filing | 1 | 579 | ||||||
| Unreconciled difference | 0 | |||||||
UGT Elements
Element name, Standard label, Definition
The 2014 UGT provided eighteen and the 2015 (pending SEC authorization) UGT provides twenty Period Type Instant (e.g., point in time, Balance Sheet) deferred tax elements. The elements with their Standard labels and definitions are as follows:
| No. | Concept name | Standard label | Documentation label |
| 1 | DeferredIncomeTaxAssetsNet* | Deferred Income Tax Assets, Net | Amount, after allocation of valuation allowances and deferred tax liability, of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible differences and carryforwards, netted by jurisdiction. |
| 2 | DeferredIncomeTaxLiabilities | Deferred Tax Liabilities, Gross | Amount of deferred tax liability attributable to taxable temporary differences. |
| 3 | DeferredIncomeTaxLiabilitiesNet* | Deferred Income Tax Liabilities, Net | Amount, after deferred tax asset, of deferred tax liability attributable to taxable differences, netted by jurisdiction. |
| 4 | DeferredTaxAssetsGross | Deferred Tax Assets, Gross | Amount before allocation of valuation allowances of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible temporary differences and carryforwards. |
| 5 | DeferredTaxAssetsGrossCurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Gross, Current | Amount before allocation of valuation allowances of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible temporary differences and carryforwards expected to be realized or consumed within one year or operating cycle, if longer. |
| 6 | DeferredTaxAssetsGrossNoncurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Gross, Noncurrent | Amount before allocation of valuation allowances of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible temporary differences and carryforwards expected to be realized or consumed after one year (or the normal operating cycle, if longer). |
| 7 | DeferredTaxAssetsLiabilitiesNet** | Deferred Tax Assets, Net | Amount, after allocation of valuation allowances and deferred tax liability, of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible differences and carryforwards, before jurisdictional netting. |
| 8 | DeferredTaxAssetsLiabilitiesNetCurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Net, Current | Amount, after allocation of valuation allowances and deferred tax liability, of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible differences and carryforwards, netted by jurisdiction and classified as current. |
| 9 | DeferredTaxAssetsLiabilitiesNetNoncurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Net, Noncurrent | Amount, after allocation of valuation allowances and deferred tax liability, of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible differences and carryforwards, netted by jurisdiction and classified as noncurrent. |
| 10 | DeferredTaxAssetsNet | Deferred Tax Assets, Net of Valuation Allowance | Amount after allocation of valuation allowances of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible temporary differences and carryforwards. |
| 11 | DeferredTaxAssetsNetCurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Net of Valuation Allowance, Current | Amount after allocation of valuation allowances of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible temporary differences and carryforwards expected to be realized or consumed within one year or operating cycle, if longer. |
| 12 | DeferredTaxAssetsNetNoncurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Net of Valuation Allowance, Noncurrent | Amount after allocation of valuation allowances of noncurrent deferred tax asset attributable to deductible temporary differences and carryforwards. Noncurrent assets are expected to be realized or consumed after one year (or the normal operating cycle, if longer). |
| 13 | DeferredTaxAssetsValuationAllowance | Deferred Tax Assets, Valuation Allowance | Amount of deferred tax assets for which it is more likely than not that a tax benefit will not be realized. |
| 14 | DeferredTaxAssetsValuationAllowanceCurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Valuation Allowance, Current | Amount of valuation allowances of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible temporary differences and carryforwards expected to be realized or consumed within one year or operating cycle, if longer. |
| 15 | DeferredTaxAssetsValuationAllowanceNoncurre | Deferred Tax Assets, Valuation Allowance, Noncurrent | Amount of deferred tax assets for which it is more likely than not that a tax benefit will not be realized expected to be realized or consumed after one year (or the normal operating cycle, if longer). |
| 16 | DeferredTaxLiabilities*** | Deferred Tax Liabilities, Net | Amount, after deferred tax asset, of deferred tax liability attributable to taxable differences, before jurisdictional netting. |
| 17 | DeferredTaxLiabilitiesCurrent | Deferred Tax Liabilities, Net, Current | Amount, after deferred tax asset, of deferred tax liability attributable to taxable differences, netted by jurisdiction and classified as current. |
| 18 | DeferredTaxLiabilitiesGrossCurrent | Deferred Tax Liabilities, Gross, Current | Amount of deferred tax liability attributable to taxable temporary differences expected to be realized or consumed within one year or operating cycle, if longer. |
| 19 | DeferredTaxLiabilitiesGrossNoncurrent | Deferred Tax Liabilities, Gross, Noncurrent | Gross amount of noncurrent deferred tax liabilities, which result from applying the applicable tax rate to taxable temporary differences pertaining to each jurisdiction to which the entity is obligated to pay income tax. |
| 20 | DeferredTaxLiabilitiesNoncurrent | Deferred Tax Liabilities, Net, Noncurrent | Amount, after deferred tax asset, of deferred tax liability attributable to taxable differences, netted by jurisdiction and classified as noncurrent. |
| * | Added to the 2015 UGT. | ||
| ** | Deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowance in excess of Deferred tax liabilities | ||
| *** | Deferred tax liabilities in excess of Deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowance | ||
Element Attributes, UGT location(s), Instance Use
The twenty elements, including their attributes, UGT location, and their intended use is as follows:
| No. | Period type | Data type | Balance type | Calculation Group | Balance Sheet (B) or Disclosure (D) |
HTML Financial Statement Presentation Classified (C) or Non-classified (N) |
|||||||
| 1 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | debit | 108000 | B | N | |||||||
| 2 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | credit | 108050 | 770000 | D | N | ||||||
| 3 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | credit | 108000 | B | N | |||||||
| 4 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | debit | 108050 | 770000 | D | N | ||||||
| 5 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | debit | 104050 | 108050 | D | C | ||||||
| 6 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | debit | 104050 | 108050 | D | C | ||||||
| 7 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | debit | 108050 | D | N | |||||||
| 8 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | debit | 104000 | 108000 | B | C | ||||||
| 9 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | debit | 104000 | 108000 | B | C | ||||||
| 10 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | debit | 104050 | 108050 | D | N | ||||||
| 11 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | debit | 104050 | D | C | |||||||
| 12 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | debit | 104050 | D | C | |||||||
| 13 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | credit | 770000 | D | N | |||||||
| 14 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | credit | 104050 | D | C | |||||||
| 15 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | credit | 104050 | D | C | |||||||
| 16 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | credit | 770000 | D | N | |||||||
| 17 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | credit | 104000 | 108000 | B | C | ||||||
| 18 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | credit | 108050 | D | C | |||||||
| 19 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | credit | 108050 | D | C | |||||||
| 20 | instant | xbrli:monetaryItemType | credit | 104000 | 108000 | B | C |
Subject Population Characteristics
It would be reasonably expected that substantially all tax-paying entities would report at least one of the UGT deferred tax asset or liability elements. Of the population of entities considered, the following information may be drawn:
| Count | |||||||
| No. of Companies that made the filings | 6,905 | ||||||
| Less: | |||||||
| No. of Companies that did not report any facts tagged with the UGT deferred tax | |||||||
| asset or liability elements | 1,093 | ||||||
| No. of Companies that reported at least one fact tagged with the UGT deferred tax | |||||||
| asset or liability elements | 5,812 | ||||||
| No. of Companies that provided Calculation linkbase relationships including | |||||||
| UGT deferred tax asset or liability elements | 4,939 | ||||||
| Less: | |||||||
| No. of Companies that provided Calculation linkbase relationships including UGT deferred tax | |||||||
| asset or liability elements, but did not report any facts tagged with those elements | 27 | 4,912 | |||||
| No. of Companies that did not provide Calculation linkbase relationships including | |||||||
| UGT deferred tax asset or liability elements | 900 | 15.5% | |||||
As can be seen from the data above, there are 1,093 Companies that have not reported any of the UGT deferred tax asset or liability elements. Of this amount, 209 are pass-through entities not subject to income tax and therefore not expected to report deferred taxes in a set of financial data prepared in accordance with US GAAP. Based on review, the remaining 884 Companies are tax-paying entities that improperly tagged their deferred tax data for reasons including improperly extending elements or non-compliance with the SEC's Rule on Interactive Data to Improve Financial Reporting (e.g., failing to tag data reported in their HTML financial statements, not applying Level 4 requirements noting that significantly all filings considered contained financial statements for periods ending after June 15, 2012).
Of the 5,812 Companies that did report at least one fact tagged with a UGT deferred tax asset or liability element, 4,912 or 85% of Companies that reported UGT deferred tax asset or liability facts in their Instances included at least one Calculation linkbase relationship containing the UGT deferred tax asset or liability element in their extension taxonomy. That means that there are 900 or 15% of Companies that have not provided any Calculation relationships of which 329 or 6% of the Companies used Balance Sheet UGT deferred tax asset or liability elements, which, at a minimum, would be expected to be included in a Calculation relationship to [total] Assets or [total] Liabilities. Either these 329 Companies failed to provide the required Calculation relationships or selected incorrect elements.
The 27 Companies that did not report facts for the UGT deferred tax asset or liability elements included in their extension taxonomies did properly include such elements in Calculation relationships. Due to the basis for the population of 5,812 Companies being based on reported facts, the 27 Companies must be excluded from the analysis, even though they did provide Calculation relationships for those elements included in their extension taxonomy, but which did not tag facts in the selected Form 10-K Instance. Having an element in the extension taxonomy that does not tag a fact in an Instance is acceptable; it is not unlike having a general ledger account that had no opening balance and had no activity, there is simply no data.
UGT Element Use
The following summarizes the use of the UGT deferred tax asset or liability elements by the 5,812 Companies:
| Count | |||||||||
| ∑
No. of Instances |
Extension taxonomies with no Calculation Relationships |
% | |||||||
| No. of Companies that reported at least one fact only using UGT deferred tax | |||||||||
| asset or liability Balance Sheet elements | 119 | 68 | 57% | ||||||
| No. of Companies that reported at least one fact only using UGT deferred tax | |||||||||
| asset or liability Disclosure elements | 1,385 | 571 | 41% | ||||||
| No. of Companies that reported facts using both UGT deferred tax | |||||||||
| asset or liability Balance Sheet and Disclosure elements | 4,308 | 261 | 6% | ||||||
| No. of Companies that reported at least one fact tagged with the UGT deferred tax | |||||||||
| �asset or liability elements | 5,812 | 900 | 15% | ||||||
Of the 119 Companies that only used UGT deferred tax asset or liability Balance Sheet elements to tag at least one fact, 68 or 57% did not include the UGT deferred tax asset or liability element in a Calculation relationship. At a minimum, it is expected that the Balance Sheet elements will be involved in a Calculation relationship with either Assets or Liabilities and Equity, or a Calculation-child thereof.
Of the 1,385 Companies that only used UGT deferred tax asset or liability Disclosure elements to tag at least one fact, 571 or 41% did not include the UGT deferred tax asset or liability element in a Calculation relationship. Whether these items incorrectly were not provided Calculation relationships is difficult to ascertain without studying each individual Instance because it is possible to disclose, for example, total deferred tax assets as a stand-alone fact.
Of the 4,308 Companies that used at least one UGT Balance Sheet and one Disclosure deferred tax asset or liability element to tag a fact, 261 or 6% did not include the UGT deferred tax asset or liability element in a Calculation relationship. As previously stated, at a minimum, it is expected that the Balance Sheet elements should be included in a Calculation relationship.
Extension Taxonomies – Element Selection
Focusing on the Calculation relationships, information of whether the correct elements were selected and applied by the 4,912 Companies may be ascertained.
| No. | Concept name | Standard label | B/S (B) or Disclosure (D) |
HTML F/S Presentation Classified (C) or Non-classified (N) |
No. of times Included in "Statement" Group |
No. of times Included in "Disclosure" Group* |
|||||||
| 1 | DeferredIncomeTaxAssetsNet** | Deferred Income Tax Assets, Net | B | N | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| 2 | DeferredIncomeTaxLiabilities | Deferred Tax Liabilities, Gross | D | N | 78 | 1,577 | |||||||
| 3 | DeferredIncomeTaxLiabilitiesNet** | Deferred Income Tax Liabilities, Net | B | N | 1 | 0 | |||||||
| 4 | DeferredTaxAssetsGross | Deferred Tax Assets, Gross | D | N | 16 | 3,086 | |||||||
| 5 | DeferredTaxAssetsGrossCurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Gross, Current | D | C | 20 | 291 | |||||||
| 6 | DeferredTaxAssetsGrossNoncurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Gross, Noncurrent | D | C | 20 | 290 | |||||||
| 7 | DeferredTaxAssetsLiabilitiesNet*** | Deferred Tax Assets, Net | D | N | 168 | 151 | |||||||
| 8 | DeferredTaxAssetsLiabilitiesNetCurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Net, Current | B | C | 322 | 343 | |||||||
| 9 | DeferredTaxAssetsLiabilitiesNetNoncurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Net, Noncurrent | B | C | 244 | 283 | |||||||
| 10 | DeferredTaxAssetsNet | Deferred Tax Assets, Net of Valuation Allowance | D | N | 148 | 1,871 | |||||||
| 11 | DeferredTaxAssetsNetCurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Net of Valuation Allowance, Current | D | C | 1,550 | 556 | |||||||
| 12 | DeferredTaxAssetsNetNoncurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Net of Valuation Allowance, Noncurrent | D | C | 951 | 502 | |||||||
| 13 | DeferredTaxAssetsValuationAllowance | Deferred Tax Assets, Valuation Allowance | D | N | 2 | 3,357 | |||||||
| 14 | DeferredTaxAssetsValuationAllowanceCurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Valuation Allowance, Current | D | C | 0 | 267 | |||||||
| 15 | DeferredTaxAssetsValuationAllowanceNoncurrent | Deferred Tax Assets, Valuation Allowance, Noncurrent | D | C | 0 | 318 | |||||||
| 16 | DeferredTaxLiabilities**** | Deferred Tax Liabilities, Net | D | N | 122 | 1,111 | |||||||
| 17 | DeferredTaxLiabilitiesCurrent | Deferred Tax Liabilities, Net, Current | B | C | 434 | 344 | |||||||
| 18 | DeferredTaxLiabilitiesGrossCurrent | Deferred Tax Liabilities, Gross, Current | D | C | 13 | 125 | |||||||
| 19 | DeferredTaxLiabilitiesGrossNoncurrent | Deferred Tax Liabilities, Gross, Noncurrent | D | C | 39 | 191 | |||||||
| 20 | DeferredTaxLiabilitiesNoncurrent | Deferred Tax Liabilities, Net, Noncurrent | B | C | 1,691 | 607 | |||||||
| Total Calculation relationships by link:role Type (i.e., Document, Statement, Disclosure, Schedule) per EFM 6.7.12 | 5,819 | 15,270 | |||||||||||
| Total Calculation relationships for 4,912 Form 10-K Instances reporting facts with UGT deferred tax asset or liability elements | 21,089 | ||||||||||||
| * | For purposes of the above table, elements included in "Schedule" Groups were combined with "Disclosure" Groups. | ||||||||||||
| ** | Added to the 2015 UGT. | ||||||||||||
| *** | Deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowance in excess of Deferred tax liabilities | ||||||||||||
| **** | Deferred tax liabilities in excess of Deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowance | ||||||||||||
Observations
Balance Sheet Elements
Item No. 1 and 3 were not added to the UGT until 2015. Item No. 3 was an extension created by one of the 5,812 Companies that reported at least one fact using a UGT deferred tax asset or liability element. The element was properly included in a Calculation relationship with Deferred Revenue and Credits, which was included on the Balance Sheet in a Presentation and Calculation Group as a child to Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity.
Item No. 8 and 9 were incorrectly used by the Companies that used the elements in 46% and 48% of the extension taxonomies supporting the Instances, respectively. Item No. 8 and 9, at a minimum, was included in 303 and 254 Calculation relationships as a Calculation-child to a deferred tax asset or liability Disclosure element, respectively.
The Companies that used Items No. 17 and 20 used the elements incorrectly in 32% and 19% of the extension taxonomies supporting the Instances, respectively. Item No. 17 and 20, at a minimum, was included in 250 and 442 Calculation relationships as a Calculation-child to a deferred tax asset or liability Disclosure element, respectively.
Items No. 8, 9, 17 and 20 are "netted by tax jurisdiction", which according to US GAAP is a Balance Sheet presentation basis for deferred tax asset or liability assertions, and, therefore, cannot be a Calculation-child to an element that is netted across tax jurisdictions and intended for total deferred tax asset and liability assertions required to be disclosed in the footnotes to a set of financial statements prepared in accordance with US GAAP.
In accordance with US GAAP, the deferred tax assertions reported on a Balance Sheet are netted by tax-paying component of the reporting entity, by tax jurisdiction, by Balance Sheet classification for a classified Balance Sheet presentation and by tax-paying component of the reporting entity, by tax jurisdiction for an unclassified Balance Sheet presentation. Therefore, the UGT deferred tax asset and liability Balance Sheet elements (noted with a "B" in the table above) can never be a Calculation-child to a UGT deferred tax asset and liability Disclosure element, the basis for which is by tax-paying component of the reporting entity netted across all tax jurisdictions (see discussion US GAAP taxonomy - Deferred Taxes 1.0 posted on December 14, 2014).
Disclosure Elements
In 2,837 cases, the UGT deferred tax asset and liability Disclosure elements (noted with a "D" in the table above) were included in extension taxonomy Balance Sheet Groups. These UGT deferred tax asset and liability elements can never be used on a Balance Sheet in a set of financial statements prepared in accordance with US GAAP because the basis for these elements is deferred tax asset and liability computed by tax-paying component of the reporting entity, netted across tax jurisdictions, not netted by tax jurisdiction - - financial statement classification being considered as appropriate.
This equates to Companies selecting the incorrect element to tag 45% or 8,645 of the 19,338 total deferred tax asset or liability facts reported by the subject population. These facts should have been tagged with UGT deferred tax asset or liability Balance Sheet elements, not Disclosure elements.
UGT – Incorrect Modeling
2009 UGT
In the 2009 UGT, Item No. 7 had a Standard label "Deferred Tax Assets (Liabilities), Net", was not included in any Statement of Financial Position Presentation Groups, and was included in a Calculation relationship as the Calculation-parent of Item No. 8 Deferred Tax Assets (Liabilities), Net, Current and Item No. 9 Deferred Tax Assets (Liabilities), Net, Noncurrent.
This was an isolated element meant to tag a single deferred tax asset, net of valuation allowance in excess of deferred tax liability positive fact value or a single deferred tax liability in excess of deferred tax asset, net of valuation allowance negative fact value by tax-paying component of the reporting entity, netted across tax jurisdictions, and netted across classification (as applicable).
This element was not included in the UGT Statement of Financial Position Unclassified Presentation Groups because the element was the difference between deferred tax assets and liabilities; a total net position often reported in the footnote disclosures to a set of financial statements prepared in accordance with US GAAP, although not a required disclosure by US GAAP.
2011 UGT
In the 2011 UGT, additional Calculation relationships were added with Item No. 7 as the Calculation-parent of Item No. 10 Deferred Tax Assets, Net and Item No. 16 Deferred Tax Liabilities.
Item No. 10 Deferred Tax Assets, Net was included in the 2011 UGT Statement of Financial Position, Unclassified Presentation Groups, representing the deferred tax asset net of valuation allowance by tax-paying component of the reporting entity, by tax jurisdiction.
Item No. 16 Deferred Tax Liabilities was not included in any 2011 UGT Statement of Financial Position, Unclassified Presentation Groups. The 2011 UGT Statement of Financial Position, Unclassified Presentation Groups deferred tax liability element was Item No. 2 Deferred Income Tax Liabilities (DeferredIncomeTaxLiabilities), which was not included in the UGT 770000 – Disclosure – Income Taxes Group.
Item No. 16 and Item No. 2 were duplicate elements based on the 2011 UGT model.
2012, 2013, and 2014 UGT
In 2012, Item No. 7 was included in the 2012 UGT Statement of Financial Position, Unclassified Presentation Groups.
The Standard label of Item No. 7 was changed in the 2012 UGT to Deferred Tax Assets, Net.
Item No. 10 was removed from all 2012 UGT Statement of Financial Position, Unclassified Presentation Groups.
A Calculation relationship was added to the 2012 UGT that made Item No. 7 the Calculation-parent of Item No. 10 the Standard label of which was changed to Deferred Tax Assets, Net of Valuation Allowance in the 2012 UGT and Item No. 2 Deferred Tax Liabilities, Gross, which Standard label was changed from the 2011 Deferred Income Tax Liabilities.
Item No. 7 was now both (i) deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowance in excess of deferred tax liabilities netted by tax-paying component of the reporting entity, netted across tax jurisdictions and (ii) deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowance netted by tax-paying component of the reporting entity, netted by tax jurisdiction.
Every element must be unique and specific and, according to the EDGAR Filing Manual 6.6.24 "Definitions cannot be changed". Definitions cannot be changed because once published, the concept must be consistent for the data it tags to be comparative and meaningful. A published element once modeled for consumption by the market can be expensive to the market if the element is changed. No element can be more than a single concept, in order for the data to be useful because how would a user know that for one entity the concept is the total deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowance in excess of total deferred tax liabilities and for another entity the concept is deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowance by tax-paying component of the reporting entity, by tax jurisdiction.
Item No. 16 has the same issues noted for the evolution of Item No. 7.
2015 UGT (Pending SEC Authorization)
In 2015, Item No. 7 was removed from all UGT Statement of Financial Position, Unclassified Presentation Groups and modified to represent only deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowance in excess of deferred tax liabilities.
In 2015, Item No. 16 was removed from all UGT Statement of Financial Position, Unclassified Presentation Groups and modified to represent only deferred tax liabilities in excess of deferred tax assets, net of valuation allowance.
Any Company that included Item No. 7 or 16 in its extension taxonomy Balance Sheet Group and reported facts in an Instance created using the 2012 through 2014 UGT was correct based on the UGT as published.
Item No. 10 did not undergo further change in the 2015 UGT (pending SEC Authorization).
Item No. 1 and 3 were added to the 2015 UGT (pending SEC Authorization), in order for use in unclassified Balance Sheet presentations.
An issue exists affecting all data in the public database for all facts for all periods from 2008 to 2014 because of the modeling provided these elements. Due to the elements having their original substance modified, as evidenced by substantive definition and relationship changes, the data is not comparable; time series analysis is not possible. It now falls on each individual consumer of the data to correct and normalize this information, as reported, in order to properly consider and analyze the information.
Extension Elements
Not included in the above observations are 42 Companies that extended deferred tax asset and liability elements not provided in the UGT. In many of these extension taxonomies, the extensions duplicate UGT elements and are therefore inappropriate.
Incorrect Document Type
There were 312 or 5% of the 6,905 Companies that filed more than one Form 10-K within the period from January 1, 2014 to December 27, 2014. That amounts to 579 Form 10-K filings by these 312 Companies or 8% more than the number of filings expected (i.e., one Form 10-K per twelve month period).
Of the 579 filings, 285 or 49% were reported as Document Entity Information UGT "Document Type" Form 10-K in the Instance, but should have been Form 10-K/A, 10-KT, or Form 10-KT/A, etc.
The incorrect Document Type affected the analysis of the data and caused considerable effort to identify the issue and isolate the filings for analysis. Attention to detail on the part of the preparer in these cases could have prevented the necessity to invest in cleaning the data prior to analysis.
The normalization of data is a pillar of Data Quality. Providing the data "as filed" to the public is not beneficial, if the user must invest extensive effort to cleanse the data prior to analysis or the user is unaware of the need to cleanse the data. Data normalization would provide all users the same starting data population on which their individual analytical criteria could be imputed. The data needs to be standardized, while the analysis is individualized by the user.
Assets Not Reported
In the population of 6,905 Company Form 10-K filings from January 1, 2014 to December 27, 2014, there were eleven Companies that did not report assets in Exhibit 101.
These eleven Companies are predominantly development stage entities, some of which have early adopted ASU 2014-10, June 2014, Development Stage Entities, (Topic 915)Elimination of Certain Financial Reporting Requirements, Including an Amendment to Variable Interest Entities Guidance in Topic 810, Consolidation, which, among other changes, eliminated (i) the requirement to present inception-to-date information on the Income Statement, Statement of Cash Flows, and Statement of Changes in Shareholders' Equity, and (ii) label the financial statements as those of a "Development Stage Entity", a term removed from the Accounting Standards Codification Master Glossary.
On the HTML financial statements of these eleven Companies, the following characteristics were noted. The characteristics are summarized across the eleven Company population, noting that at least one of the Companies exhibited each characteristic noted.
- Cash and other asset captions were presented on the Balance Sheet, but the values were blank (i.e., dashes) for all periods presented.
- Liabilities consisted of accounts payable and accrued expenses, and certain related party obligations.
- Liabilities were generally "current" in nature, presented under a "Current Liabilities" header, but the HTML financial statement caption for the aggregation was "Total Liabilities".
- Cash was the only reported asset on the Balance Sheet, but there was no "Current Assets" or "Assets" caption presented.
- Liabilities presented under "Current Liabilities" captions, but neither "Current liabilities" nor "Total Liabilities" is presented.
- There was no "Assets" section presented on the HTML Balance Sheet.
- Total Assets is presented, but is blank (i.e., dash) for all periods presented.
- One of the eleven Companies extended the Assets tag.
Any of the Companies that did not present an asset assertion in its HTML financial statements is within its rights not to tag assets in its Instance. However, certain of these entities did not properly tag their HTML financial statements in XBRL format in accordance with the requirements of the EDGAR Filing Manual (i.e., HTML reported monetary values not tagged).