Basis of Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2015

Basis of Consolidated Financial Statements [Abstract]

Comprehensive Income, Policy [Policy Text Block]

Comprehensive Income/(Loss)

Comprehensive income/(loss) includes all changes in equity except those resulting from investments by owners and distributions to owners. Specifically, foreign currency translation adjustments, amounts related to supplemental benefit plans, unrealized gains and losses on interest rate swap transactions and unrealized gains and losses on investment are recorded in other comprehensive income/(loss).

The following table shows the components of accumulated other comprehensive loss, net of taxes as of March 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014:

	2015			2014
Cumulative foreign currency translation	$	(99,236	)	$	(77,460	)
Cumulative supplemental benefit plans	(4,364		)	(4,266		)
Net unrecognized losses on interest rate swap	(4,515		)	(2,335		)
Net unrealized gains on marketable securities	81			275
Accumulated other comprehensive loss	$	(108,034	)	$	(83,786	)

Marketable Securities [Table Text Block]

Marketable Securities

Debt securities are carried at fair value and consist primarily of investments in obligations of various corporations and mortgage-backed securities. Equity securities are carried at fair value and consist primarily of investments in marketable common and preferred stock. We classify our publicly traded debt and equity securities as available-for-sale and carry them at fair value with unrealized gains or losses classified as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income/(loss). As of March 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, our marketable securities consist primarily of investments in preferred stock of $22.0 million and $22.3 million, respectively.

Escrow Administration Arrangements [Policy Text Block]

Escrow Disbursement Arrangements

We administer tax escrow disbursements as a service to our clients in connection with our tax services business. These deposits are maintained in segregated accounts for the benefit of our clients. Tax escrow deposits totaled $4.6 billion as of March 31, 2015 and $265.6 million as of December 31, 2014. Because these deposits are held on behalf of our clients, they are not our funds and, therefore, are not included in the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheets.

These deposits generally remain in the accounts for a period of two to five business days and we invest the funds in a highly-rated, liquid investment, such as bank deposit products or AAA-rated money market funds. We earn interest income from these investments and bear the risk of any losses. However, we have not historically incurred any investment losses and do not anticipate incurring any future investment losses. As a result, we do not maintain any reserves for losses in value of these investments.