Tax Abatement Disclosures: An Exploratory Study of Professional’s Perceptions and Early Disclosures of GASB Statement No. 77

Abstract

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) adopted Statement No. 77 requiring government disclosure of tax abatements in audited financial reports for years beginning after December 15, 2015. This paper reports survey findings provided by accounting and finance professionals (practitioners) regarding their tax abatement reporting perceptions. We then review early implementation of the abatement disclosure and find the disclosed information does not meet the practitioner’s expectations. Our findings fill a gap in state and local financial reports as it appears the new disclosure requirement does not fulfill the Board’s reporting transparency expectation goals.