Tag: structured data

Fix your data tagging!

In this announcement, the SEC’s Office of Structured Disclosure advises that many of us have been tagging our basic and diluted earnings-per-share data incorrectly.  The announcement indicates that this data should be tagged using GAAP Financial Reporting taxonomy elements “us-gaap:EarningsPerShareBasic” and “us-gaap:EarningsPerShareDiluted.” That’s true even where the numbers for basic and diluted EPS are the same number and are presented only once on the face of the income statement.  In that case, the company “should tag that amount twice using both tags.” Why is this important?  Because, according to the announcement, “[i]ncorrect tagging for EPS would negatively impact the usability of the data.” For example, in the case where the company tags the data only once, either the basic or diluted EPS information would be lost.