New Accounting Standards

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Accounting Changes And Error Corrections [Abstract]

New Accounting Standards

3. New Accounting Standards

In June 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2020-04 “Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848).” Topic 848 is effective for fiscal years and interim periods beginning as of March 12, 2020 through December 31, 2022. This update provides optional guidance for a limited period of time to ease the potential burden in accounting for reference rate reform on financial reporting. It is elective and applies to all entities, subject to meeting certain criteria, that have contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions that reference LIBOR or another reference rate expected to be discontinued because of reference rate reform. The adoption of ASU 2020-04 did not have a material impact on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

In December 2019, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2019-12 “Income Taxes (Topic 740).” Topic 740 is effective for fiscal years and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2020. This update simplifies the accounting for income taxes by removing certain exceptions such as the exception to the incremental approach for intraperiod tax allocation, the exception to the requirement to recognize a deferred tax liability for equity method investments, the exception to the ability not to recognize a deferred tax liability for a foreign subsidiary and the exception to the general methodology for calculating income taxes in an interim period. The adoption of ASU 2019-12 will not have a material impact on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows. 

In November 2019, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2019-10 “Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326).” Topic 326 is effective for fiscal years and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2019. This update also amends the mandatory effective date for the elimination of Step 2 from the goodwill impairment test (Accounting Standards Update No. 2017-.04, Intangibles-Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment. These amendments align the mandatory effective dates for goodwill with those for Credit Losses. The adoption of ASU 2019-10 did not have a material impact on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

In April 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-04 “Codification Improvements to Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326).” The new standard clarifies certain aspects of accounting for credit losses, hedging activities and financial instruments (addressed by ASUs 2016-13, 2017-12, and 2016-01, respectively). The standard is effective for fiscal periods beginning after December 15, 2019, including interim periods within those fiscal years. We early adopted as of October 1, 2019, and the result of adoption did not have a material impact on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.