Accounting Policies

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

ACCOUNTING POLICIES

2. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of Presentation The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements (“financial statements”) include the accounts of Glatfelter and its wholly owned subsidiaries. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated.

We prepared these financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“generally accepted accounting principles” or “GAAP”). In our opinion, the financial statements reflect all normal, recurring adjustments needed to present fairly our results for the interim periods. When preparing these financial statements, we have assumed that you have read the audited consolidated financial statements included in our 2011 Annual Report on Form 10-K (“2011 Form 10-K”).

Accounting Estimates The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingencies as of the balance sheet date and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. We believe the estimates and assumptions used in the preparation of these financial statements are reasonable, based upon currently available facts and known circumstances, but recognize that actual results may differ from those estimates and assumptions.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements In June 2011, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2011-05, “Presentation of Comprehensive Income.” This ASU is designed to improve the comparability and transparency of other comprehensive income components. The guidance provides an option to present total comprehensive income, the components of net income and the components of other comprehensive income in a single continuous statement or two separate but consecutive statements. This ASU eliminates the option to present other comprehensive income components as part of the statement of changes in shareholders’ equity. The provisions of this ASU are required to be applied retrospectively. We have adopted this standard by presenting a separate consecutive statement of comprehensive income beginning in the first quarter of 2012.

In September 2011, the FASB updated ASC 350, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other to provide an entity the option, when evaluating goodwill and other assets for possible impairment, to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether the existence of events or circumstances leads to a determination that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If, after completing this assessment, an entity determines it is not more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, then performing the two-step impairment test is unnecessary. This update became effective for us beginning January 1, 2012. We adopted this standard in the third quarter of 2012 and it did not have a material impact on us.

In May 2011, the FASB issued ASU 2011-04, “Fair Value Measurement (Topic 820): Amendments to Achieve Common Fair Value Measurement and Disclosure Requirements in U.S. GAAP and IFRS,” which provides common requirements for measuring fair value and disclosing information about fair value measurements in accordance with U.S. GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards. We adopted this standard in the first quarter of 2012 and it did not have a material impact on us.