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1、外文翻译-环境会计 本科毕业论文设计外 文 翻 译外文出处 Business Economic Review2006 外文作者 布莱恩斯坦科艾琳布罗根艾琳亚历山大 com 原文Environmental AccountingHeres why projected cleanup costs from hazardous waste sites will be finding their way onto the balance sheets of Corporate AmericaMonitoring the production and disposal of hazardous waste
2、 has been a top priority of the United States government and the Environmental Protection Agency EPA since the mid-1970s largely as a result of the Love Canal environmental disaster Unfortunately the remediation of hazardous waste sites is not finished and cleanup cost estimates range anywhere betwe
3、en 500 billion and 1 trillion American corporations will ultimately be held accountable for these costs What remains to be seen however is exactly who when and how much In terms of corporate responsibilities this article discusses requirements regarding the financial reporting of environmental liabi
4、lities and current initiatives that should improve the measurement and disclosure of these liabilities Investors and business professionals alike must understand the significance of these obligations as they relate to current and future corporate financial statementsFinancial ReportingFinancial repo
5、rting requirements have evolved over time under several governing bodies The Securities Act of 1934 created the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC and gave it the authority to administer federal securities laws and prescribe accounting principles and reporting practices Companies that are consid
6、ered under the jurisdiction of the SEC include any company whose stock is publicly traded As a result these companies are required to follow SEC disclosure requirements in their filings The Financial Accounting Standards Board FASB is responsible for establishing the current standards of financial a
7、ccounting and reporting The standards or pronouncements that the FASB issues Statements of Financial Accounting Standards SFASs are officially recognized as authoritative by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants AICPA the national professio
8、nal organization of CPAsUntil recently the AICPA played a prominent role in the accounting and reporting environment But as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 the AlCPAs Auditing Standards Board ASB was limited in its role of establishing Generally Accepted Auditing Standards Auditing and re
9、lated professional practice standards as they pertain to public companies are now established by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board PCAOB a private-sector nonprofit corporation created to oversee the auditors of public companies in order to protect the interests of investors and further t
10、he public interest in the preparation of informative fair and independent audit reportsEvolution of Environmental Accounting StandardsThe common definition of environmental accounting is the identification measurement and allocation of environmental costs the integration of these environmental costs
11、 into business decisions and the subsequent communication of the information to a companys stakeholders AICPA Typical environmental costs include off-site waste disposal costs cleanup costs litigation costs and other related costs The first accounting standards or interpretation of standards that co
12、uld be applied to environmental liabilities were enacted by the FASB in 1975 and 1976 These rules covered a generic grouping of contingent liabilities including environmental liabilities Initially the FASB stated that contingent liabilities arising from environmental cleanup costs should be accounte
13、d for and disclosed according to Statement of Financial Accounting Standards SFAS No 5 Accounting for Contingencies FASB 1975 One year later the FASB issued Interpretation FIN No 14 Reasonable Estimation of the Amount of a Loss FASB 1976 offering additional guidance regarding loss contingencies Esse
14、ntially the standard required losses to be accrued for when they became probable and reasonably estimable SFAS No 5 is still followed today by accountants who are considering the measurement and disclosure of environmental liabilitiesSuperfundPrior to Congress passing legislation granting the EPA au
15、thority to identify and sanction Potentially Responsible Parties PRPs most reported environmental liabilities were minimal That changed in 1980 when Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 CERCLA commonly known as the Superfund Act CERCLA estab
16、lished strict regulatory requirements regarding the release of hazardous substances from existing or future waste sitesSix years later Congress amended CERCLA with the Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act SARA This strengthened the EPAs authority and increased the agencys fund balance Under t
17、he new Superfund Act the EPA became responsible for identifying and listing those locations throughout the United States where hazardous substances or waste either have caused or may cause damage to the environment The EPA through administrative or legal action seeks to require PRPs to accept respon
18、sibility for the remediation of contaminated sitesUnder CERCLA a PRP is defined as any individual or company that is potentially responsible for or contributed to the contamination problems at a Superfund site According to Paul D Hutchinson this can include Current owners or operators of facilities
19、where hazardous substances have been deposited Owners or operators of facilities at the time hazardous substances were deposited Generators of hazardous substances deposited at facilities Transporters of hazardous substances to facilities Persons who arranged for disposal or treatment of hazardous s
20、ubstances at facilitiesOnce the EPA identifies a PRP a liability-based program is used to address the cleanup of the site Under the liability-based program a potentially responsible party is classified into one of three categories Strict Liability - the PRP is liable for cleanup costs even when ther
21、e was no negligence Joint and Several Liability any one party can be forced to bear the full cost of the remedy even if several parties contributed to the waste at a site Retroactive Liability - the provisions apply to actions that took place before CERCLA was passedAfter the EPA identifies the PRPs
22、 and their respective liability it sends notification to the SEC and the respective companies or individualsRegulation S-K and FRR 36With the increased environmental regulation the accounting regulatory bodies began to issue standards regarding the reporting and disclosure of environmental liabiliti
23、es In 1982 the SEC integrated all of its environmental disclosure requirements into Regulation S-K requiring disclosure if pollution expenditures had a material effect on the companys earnings Regulation S-K Item 101 known as the Description of Business requires registrants to disclose among other t
24、hings the material effects of complying or failing to comply with environmental requirements on the capital expenditures earnings and competitive position of the registrant and its subsidiaries S-K Item 103 requires registrants to describe any material concerning pending legal proceedings unless the
25、 legal proceedings involve ordinary routine litigation incidental to the business S-K Item 303 often referred to as Management Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations requires the disclosure of environmental contingencies that may reasonably have a material impact on
26、 net sales revenue or income from continuing operations In 1989 the SEC provided further guidance by issuing Financial Reporting Release FRR 36 FRR 36 discusses and illustrates various disclosure requirements for the Managements Discussion and Analysis MDA component of the SEC annual report 10-K fil
27、ing and the shareholder annual reportStaff Accounting Bulletin SAB 92Even with this increase in regulation companies were still finding it difficult to estimate liabilities that needed to be disclosed In response the SEC issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No92 SAB 92 to further clarify its disclosure
28、requirements SAB 92 specifically discussed the disclosure of environmental liabilities in the balance sheet The SECs position on the disclosure of environmental liabilities was strengthened through an agreement with the EPA in 1990 Essentially the EPA would provide the SEC with certain quarterly inf
29、ormation including names of PRPs a list of all cases filed under CERCLA and a list of civil and criminal cases under federal environmental laws In exchange for this information the SEC agreed to target the enforcement of environmental disclosuresAICPA Statement of Position 96-1By 1996 the EPA had id
30、entified more than 36000 hazardous waste sites in the United States The EPA then took what they considered to be the most severe of the contaminated sites and developed the National Priorities List NPL This list contained 1405 sites each referred to as a Superfund site From these Superfund sites alo
31、ne the EPA proceeded to identify 15000 PRPs connected to these sites These PRPs would eventually be responsible for cleanup costs that would range from 35 million to 1 billion per site The release of this information revealed to the accounting profession that the remedial liabilities of the PRPs wer
32、e significant and therefore required better accounting and disclosure As a result the AICPA issued Statement of Position SOP 96-1 Environmental Remediation Liabilities which provided specific guidance on estimation and the financial reporting of environmental accruals and contingenciesAnalysis of th
33、e Standards Past and Present A Recognition of Environmental LiabilitiesRecognition pertains to when a liability should be reported in the financial statements Contingent liabilities are obligations that are dependent upon the occurrence or nonoccurrence of one or more future events to confirm the am
34、ount payable the payee the date payable or its existence The most significant liability that a firm faces in relation to environmental accounting comprises the remediation costs Remediation costs typically include cleanup costs litigation costs and other costs associated with legal compliance FAS No
35、 5mentioned earlierrequires that a provision for a loss contingency be recorded and a liability recognized in financial statements when both of the following conditions are met It is probable that an asset has been impaired or a liability has been incurred at the date of the financial statements The
36、 amount of the loss can be reasonably estimatedFASB Interpretation FIN No 14 provides additional guidance on how to recognize a loss contingency when the estimated loss is within a specified range It recommends that the minimum amount of the range be accrued unless some amount within the range appea
37、rs at the time to be a better estimate than any other amount within the rangeThe AICPA SOP 96-1 expands the types of costs that may be appropriately accrued and the ability to consider technologies under development in order to help assess the ultimate cost of remediation efforts more accurately PRP
38、s must now use a more conservative approach increase the probability of loss recognition than under the prior provisions of SFAS No 5 to ascertain if they should accrue such liabilities According to the SOP 96-1 the probability criterion of SFAS No 5 is met if the EPA has decided or probably will th
39、at the company must participate in remediation Liabilities must now be recognized when litigation has commenced or an assertion of a claim is probable whenever the PRP is associated with that site In addition PRPs must now accrue potential environmental remediation liabilities up front all at once r
40、ather than recognize the expenses when they are actually paid B Accounting for Recognized Environmental LiabilitiesWhen a company has determined that an environmental obligation exists it must be measured and accounted for based on available information Key accounting issues related to the recogniti
41、on of environmental liabilities are highlighted belowEstimates of the Environmental LiabilityAccording to AlCPAs SOP 96-1 once a liability is determined its magnitude must be estimated In developing the estimates according to Kathleen Blackburn Hethcox Richard Riley and Jan R Williams writing in Nat
42、ional Public Accountant the factors below should be considered The extent and type of hazardous substances at the site and the costs to be included in the estimate The effect of expected future events or developments The range of technologies that can be used in remediation The number and financial
43、condition of other PRPs The effect of potential recoveriesEarly estimates of loss can be revised later if new information gives cause for a change The revisions should be accounted for as a change in accounting estimate thereby only affecting current and future financial reporting No retroactive res
44、tatement of prior year financial statements is allowed under SOP 96-1 The SOP 96-1 also recommends that for various stages of remediation benchmarks be used to evaluate the extent of the amount that can be estimated At a minimum the estimate should be evaluated as each benchmark occurs which include
45、s identification of the company as a PRP receipt of a unilateral administrative order requiring a removal action participation in a remedial investigation Rl or feasibility study FS as a PRP completion of a feasibility study and issuance of a record of decisionSource Brian B Stanko Erin Brogan Erin
46、Alexander and Josephine Choy-Mee Chay Environmental AccountingJ Buinese Economic Review 2006 4 21-27译文环境会计本文讲述了为什么从预算有害废物的清除成本可以看出美国公司编制资产负债表的方式自70年代中期以来监督生产和处置有害废物一直是美国政府和环境保护署的首要任务而这一切的起因是一场名为关爱运河环境灾难的运动不幸的是清除有害废物污染地的运动还没有完成预计的清理费用已经介于500亿至1万亿美元之间最终美国企业决定来承担这笔费用但是究竟由谁来承担何时承担承担多少这一切还有待观察就企业责任而言本文讨论
47、了环境负债财务报告的相关要求以及完善和披露这些负债的现时主观能动性投资者和商界专家都必须了解这些义务的重要性因为这涉及到当前和未来企业的财务报表财务报告负责财务报告编制要求的机构随着时间的推移发展为以下几个管理机构1934年的证券法提出创建证券交易委员会SEC并给予它管理联邦证券法律和制定会计报告准则的权力证券交易委员会管辖之下的公司包括一些股票已经公开交易的公司因此这些公司在提交文件时都必须遵守证券交易委员会关于披露的要求财务会计准则委员会FASB负责建立现行财务会计和报告的标准由财务会计准则委员会发布的标准或声明即财务报表会计准则SFASs证券交易委员会和美国注册公共会计师协会AICPA已
48、正式确认其权威性直到最近美国注册公共会计师协会才在环境会计和报告体系中发挥了突出的作用但是由于2002年的萨班斯法案美国注册公共会计师协会下辖的审计准则委员会ASB在建立公认审计准则时的作用是有限的由于它们从属于上市公司审计及相关专业的执行准则现在已经被上市公司会计监督委员会PCAOB建立这是一个由非盈利企业创办的私人机构为了监督上市公司的审计师以保障投资者的利益并促进建立更为详实公正独立的审计报告环境会计准则的演变环境会计通常的定义是对环境费用进行确认计量和分配在商业决策时综合环境成本因素随后将这些信息同企业利益相关者交流AICPA典型的环境成本包括场外废物处置费用清理费用诉讼费用以及其他相关费用1975年和1976年财务会计准则委员会颁布了第一个适用于环境负债的会计准则这些规则涵盖了一个一般类别名为或有负债包括环境负债最初财务会计准则委员会指出环境清理费用所产生的或有负债应该解释和披露这是根据财务会计报表准则SFAS第5号或有事项核算原则财务会计准则委员会1975年一年后FASB颁布第14号合理估计亏损的数额财务会计准则委员会1976年从本质上讲可能合理要求有废物堆场污染清除国会通过立法授予环保局确有废物堆场污染清除六年后国会修订了CERCLA颁布了新的有毒废物堆场污染清除有毒废物堆场污染清除有
