Making Sense of XBRL

©January 2011, 8 pages

There can be no doubt that XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) has become a hot topic for financial executives in the U.S. and also overseas. Many are already familiar, perhaps painfully so, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) XBRL reporting mandate for issuers and the requirements relating to 10-K annual reports and quarterly filings. This Issue Alert looks at what is happening in the United Kingdom (UK), where the tax authorities (HM Revenue & Customs or "HMRC") have introduced an XBRL requirement that affects all companies required to file a tax return. This Alert highlights how the UK mandate differs in some key aspects from the SEC requirement, how the UK requirements are being addressed and outlines a wider agenda of considerations for financial executives in the U.S. and elsewhere, prompted by the introduction of XBRL by regulators around the globe.