TheCorporateCounsel.net

It seems proxy statements aren’t the only filing type commonly containing XBRL tagging errors this year. This Public Chatter Blog from Perkins Coie picks up on the recent statement from the SEC’s Office of Structured Disclosure flagging observations by SEC Staff that a number of filers have used incorrect tagging practices in 10-Ks and 10-Qs filed in 2024. The statement encourages filers to review their EPS tagging in particular, specifically identifying the following incorrect practices:

– Creating custom tags such as BasicAndDilutedEarningsPerShare to tag this amount;
– Tagging this amount only once using one of the two standard tags; and
– Tagging this amount using a standard tag that was deprecated in 2022.

The data should be tagged using GAAP Financial Reporting taxonomy elements us-gaap:EarningsPerShareBasic and us-gaap:EarningsPerShareDiluted. In filings where basic and diluted EPS have the same value and are presented only once on the face of the income statement, an entity should tag that amount twice using both tags.

The blog says “without fixing the tags, apparently the data is useless to end users” and “the upshot is that the SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis is monitoring this stuff.” It also acknowledges that this might not be very understandable to folks unfamiliar with tagging practices. If that’s you, share the SEC statement with your financial reporting folks and anyone who works on or confirms XBRL tagging.

– Meredith Ervine