The Governmental Accounting Standards Board issued a discussion memorandum on Wednesday seeking comments from stakeholders on the design of the GASB-GAAP Taxonomy, one pathway to digitizing governments’ annual comprehensive financial reports without changing existing GASB reporting requirements.
The discussion memorandum, Voluntary Digital Financial Reporting—Structural Design, is a staff document designed to gather stakeholder feedback at an early stage in the project.
The GASB is looking for input on how the taxonomy was organized to enable digitization of financial statements. The board also asks respondents to comment on key taxonomy design considerations intended to help shape future voluntary digital financial reporting for state and local governments.
These considerations include:
- Organization of GASB reporting requirements;
- Incorporation of existing optionality in GASB standards;
- Incorporation of observed practice regarding presentation of financial statements; and
- Incorporation of government-specific information in financial statements.
Recommended Articles
The project is designed to improve access to governmental financial information for users of financial statements. It’s being developed through two tracks: the first is preparer-focused and pertains to developing a taxonomy for GAAP financial statements—the focus of this discussion memorandum—while the second is user-focused and aims to improve how data is extracted from and normalized through the taxonomy.
The document doesn’t propose new accounting standards or reporting requirements, the GASB noted. Instead, it seeks input on the foundational structure of a taxonomy intended to support the digital representation of information currently reported in government financial statements while maintaining the reliability of the reported information and its reliance on U.S. GAAP.
Stakeholders are asked to review the document and provide input to the GASB by Nov. 30, 2026. Comments may be submitted either in writing and addressed to the Director of Research and Technical Activities, who may be emailed at director@gasb.org or through an electronic input form.
Sign in to get access to this free resource, and all of our whitepapers and reports.
Download this content today!
Register Now Already registered? Click here to Log In
