养老金会计外文翻译文献

养老金会计外文翻译文献

(文档含英文原文和中文翻译)

原文：

New Accounting Rules for Defined Benefit Pension Plans MARCH 2008 - Issued in September 2006, Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) 158, Employers’ Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension and Other Postretirement Plans—An Amendment of FASB Statements No. 87, 88, 106, and 132(R), significantly changes the balance-sheet reporting for defined benefit pension plans. Before SFAS 158, the effects of certain events, such as plan amendments or actuarial gains and losses, were granted delayed balance-sheet recognition. As a result, a plan’s funded status (plan assets minus obligations) was rarely reported on the balance sheet. SFAS 158 requires companies to report their plans’ funded status as either an asset or a liabil ity on their balance

sheets, which will cause reported pension liabilities to rise significantly. Although SFAS 158 also applies to postretirement benefit plans other than pensions and to not-for-profit entities, the focus below is on for-profit businesses with defined benefit pension plans.

Balance-Sheet Reporting Under SFAS 158

Under SFAS 87, prepaid or accrued pension cost, which is the net of a firm’s pension assets, liabilities, and unrecognized amounts, is reported on the balance sheet. SFAS 158 arguably improves financial reporting by more clearly communicating the funded status of defined benefit pension plans. Previously, this information was reported only in the detailed pension footnotes.

Under SFAS 158, companies with defined benefit pension plans must recognize the difference between the plan’s projected benefit obligation and its fair value of plan assets as either an asset or a liability. The projected benefit obligation is the actuarial present value of the benefits attributed by the pension plan benefit formula for services already provided. As a result, the complex and conceptually unsound ―minimum pension liability‖ rules, which are used when the accumulated benefit obligation is less than the fair value of pension plan assets, has been eliminated. (The accumulated benefit obligation is similar to the projected benefit obligation but does not include expected future salary

increases in the calculation of the present value of actuarial benefits.) In addition, the unrecognized prior service costs and actuarial gains and losses that were previously relegated to the footnotes are now recognized on the balance sheet, with an offsetting amount in accumulated other comprehensive income under shareholders’ equity.

Income Reporting Under SFAS 158

SFAS 158 does not change the computation of periodic pension cost, which remains a function of service cost, interest cost, expected return on pension plan assets, and amortization of unrecognized items. It does, however, impact the reporting of comprehensive income. Specifically, actuarial gains or losses and prior service costs that arise during the period are recognized as components of comprehensive income. In addition, the amortization of actuarial gains or losses, prior service costs, and transition amounts recognized before implementing SFAS 158 require a reclassification adjustment to comprehensive income. Applying SFAS 158

Exhibit 1 presents pension footnote data for three companies: Lockheed Martin, Glatfelter, and AMR Corp. Lockheed Martin represents a classic example of a scenario SFAS 158 is designed to eliminate: namely, reporting a pension asset when the pension plan is actually underfunded. Specifically, Lock heed Martin’s pension obligation