SEC's New SRT Taxonomy Important to Foreign Direct Filers

The SEC has announced its preliminary 2018 reporting taxonomy (SRT) following a formal public review, an event of particular interest to foreign private issuers.

The 2018 SEC Reporting Taxonomy (SRT) moves a range of elements from the GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy into a new taxonomy that can be used for companies reporting under both IFRS and US GAAP.

The broad categories addressed in the SRT include:

-   The oil and gas industry

-   Financial schedules

-   Condensed consolidating financial information for guarantors

-   Country code elements

-   Common axis/domain used while reporting financials in US-GAAP.

The introduction of the SRT taxonomy eliminates the need for foreign private issuers (FPIs) using the IFRS taxonomy to import the US-GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy. This simplifies what would otherwise be a complex process.

The full text of SEC announcement is available here and the taxonomy on the FASB website here.