HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 06152010 - C.47RECOMMENDATION(S):
APPROVE revision of the County Capital Asset and Accounting and Budget Policy by
adding the reporting category of intangible assets to the policy and by establishing
capitalization thresholds for intangible assets as follows:
$1,000,000 for retroactive reported intangible assets acquired prior to July 1, 2009,
exclude internally generated intangible assets and intangible assets with an indefinite
useful life from retroactive reporting;
$100,000 for intangible assets acquired after June 30, 2009, this threshold level does
not apply to internally generated intangible assets; and
$1,000,000 for internally generated intangible assets developed after June 30, 2009.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Approval of the recommendation will allow the County to budget for the acquisition of
intangible assets as a capital expenditure and appropriation, required per Government
Accounting Standards Board Statement 51. Currently, intangible assets are budgeted as
either supplies or services.
APPROVE OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY
ADMINISTRATOR
RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD
COMMITTEE
Action of Board On: 06/15/2010 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER
Clerks Notes:
VOTE OF SUPERVISORS
Contact: Lisa Driscoll, County
Finance Director 925-335-1023
I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and
entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: June 15, 2010
David J. Twa, County Administrator and Clerk of the
Board of Supervisors
By: , Deputy
cc: Gary Malmgren, Chief Accountant, Robert Campbell, Chief Accountant, Elizabeth Verigin, Assistant Auditor-Controller,
Lisa Driscoll, County Finance Director
C.47
To:Board of Supervisors
From:David Twa, County Administrator
Date:June 15, 2010
Contra
Costa
County
Subject:CAPITALIZATION POLICY AND THRESHOLDS FOR INTANGIBLE ASSETS
BACKGROUND:
In June of 2007, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued a new
accounting and reporting pronouncement, GASB Standard 51: Accounting and Financial
Reporting for Intangible Assets, which was established to reduce current inconsistencies in
financial reporting for state and local governments and represents a new fiscal requirement
for Contra Costa County beginning FY 2009/10.
Pronouncements of the GASB apply to financial reports of all state and local governments,
including the County as a general purpose local government.
Under GASB 51, intangible assets possess all of the following characteristics:
Lack of physical substance—can be contained in or on an item with physical substance;
Non-financial nature—i.e. not investments; and
Initial useful life extends beyond a single reporting period.
Intangible assets can be separated into three general types:
Intangible assets generally considered software which includes computer programming
and code to provide computer hardware with the instructions to perform a task or
function. Software would include commercially purchased software, licensed software,
software that was significantly modified internally by staff or an outside contractor, or
software developed internally by department personnel.
1.
Intangible assets associated with real property which would include land use rights
such as easements, right of ways, water rights, timber rights and mineral rights. The
rights might provide control over the use of the property (right of way). This type of
intangible asset is usually connected with agencies that have land or roadway
infrastructure assets. If an agency owns the land and has already recorded the land as a
capital asset, then the intangible asset associated with the property should not be
recorded separately as it is already recorded with the value of the land.
2.
Intangible assets that are not software or land use rights. These are generally created
through the development of intellectual property and include patents, copyrights, and
trademarks. These are typically found at agencies that do research and development.
3.
In Contra Costa County, Intangible assets will be capitalized according to the following
thresholds:
$1,000,000 – Internally generated computer software (application development costs
only);
$1,000,000 – Retroactively reported intangible assets - - assets with an indefinite useful
life and internally generated intangible assets including internally generated software
would be excluded from the reporting requirement;
$100,000 – All other intangible assets (including easements, land rights, and purchased
or licensed computer software)
The above levels of capitalization are intended to capture a material amount of the county’s
total intangible assets so as not to distort or misstate county financial reports and can be
satisfactorily tracked by system resources and staff.
The above thresholds have also been reviewed and accepted as appropriate for a government
the size of Contra Costa County by the accounting firm that performs the County CAFR
audit.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
Should this recommendation regarding intangible assets not be approved, then the County
would not be in compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, specifically
GASB 51, and would therefore be subject to or at risk of issuing a deficient Comprehensive
Annual Financial Report (CAFR).