SEC adopted 2011 U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy

02 March 2011

The Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) announced that the SEC has adopted the 2011 U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy. This contains updates for accounting standards and other improvements to the official taxonomy previously in use by SEC issuers.

The U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy is a list of computer-readable tags in XBRL that allows companies to tag precisely the thousands of pieces of financial data that are included in typical long-form financial statements and related footnote disclosures. The tags allow computers to automatically search for, assemble, and process data so it can be readily accessed and analyzed by investors, analysts, journalists, and regulators.

The 2009 taxonomy currently in use by SEC issuers was developed by XBRL US, Inc., an independent non-profit organization with research, development, and education programs facilitating the widespread adoption of XBRL in the United States for tagging business reports across all business domains to aid investors and other users. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) staff provided technical accounting standards support to XBRL US, Inc. during the development of the 2009 taxonomy. In early 2010, the FAF assumed maintenance responsibilities for the taxonomy, and, along with the FASB, assembled a team of technical staff dedicated to updating the taxonomy for changes in U.S. GAAP, identifying best practices in taxonomy extensions, and technical enhancements.
 
Questions about using this taxonomy for creating and submitting eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) tagged interactive data files in compliance with SEC rules should be directed to the SEC.

Press release

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