Extraordinary Items

Extraordinary Items

Extraordinary items should be presented separately from normal activities as extraordinary items, and they should be described. The amount of extraordinary items should be included in the total excess of revenues over expenses. (3480.07-.08) Typically the statements will present net income before extraordinary items, and then net income after extraordinary items. Where there is more than one extraordinary item, there should be a description of each item. (3480.09)

To be considered extraordinary, the transaction or event would not be something that occurs as a result of normal business type activities, for example the write-down of assets. Nor would it be something within management’s control. And the event would not be expected to occur frequently over a several year period.

Examples cited in the CICA handbook are acts of terrorism, natural disasters, and the expropriation of land.

Many other items are debatably extraordinary, for example, a sudden failure in a pipe that damages property. If the failure was the result of a defect that could not be known by management, this could be considered an extraordinary event.

The organization may wish to separately describe and disclose any significant abnormal transactions or events, in order to alert the reader of situations unusual to the entities operations, even though the event may not be defined as "extraordinary."