The issuance of these fair-value standards is not the final word on
fair value, but rather just the "Once upon a time" of the story--we've only just begun the journey.
Internationally, the valuation of property, plant and equipment for the balance sheet is primarily governed by the International Accounting Standards Board's International Accounting Standard 16: Property, Plant & Equipment, where an entity has the option to carry the asset at cost less accumulated depreciation and impairment or at a revalued amount--namely its
fair value at the date of revaluation less subsequent depreciation--beyond initial recognition.
ASC Topic 820 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." The market participants to a
fair value transaction are defined as--
There is need for an evaluation basis that can be used to evaluate (important in recognizing an element of a financial statement) financial statements either modern (financial instruments or human resources) or have important variations in time, as value (like
fair value).
- FASB's
Fair Value Measurement Disclosure - An Overview
The main provisions of the original FAS 157 are as follows:
fair value clearly defined, statement of sources of information used in
fair value measurements (market or non-market based), and expanded disclosure requirements for assets & liabilities measured at
fair value.
GAAP and IFRS have minimal differences limited to measuring the
fair value of investments in investment companies and deposit liability; and to disclosure requirements pertaining to Level 3 of (he
fair value hierarchy and nonpublic entities.
* the share of assets and liabilities at
fair value balance sheet debt to total assets;
Unfortunately,
fair value measurements are seldom as simple as drawing a number from a broker statement or obtaining a pricing service mark.
In a continuous movement towards reporting at
fair value, the FASB has a project in the works that is considering giving the option or may even require real estate owners and operators to reflect the
fair value of their investments in Real Estate on their financial statements.
During this time, FEI's Committees on Corporate Reporting (CCR), Private Company Standards (CPC-S) and Corporate Treasury (CCT) filed comment letters on loss contingencies,
fair value measurements and pension plans.
The first deals with the growing use of
fair value measurements for assets and liabilities reported in financial statements, especially during the recent credit crisis and current economic environment.