deferred costs

ASC 340-915 formerly provided guidance on other assets and deferred costs for development stage entities, but every paragraph in the subtopic (Sections 05, 15, 25, and 35) was superseded by Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-10. As a result, there is no longer any incremental GAAP for deferred costs that is specific to development stage entities; such entities apply the same recognition and measurement guidance as any other reporting entity.

ASC 340-944 governs how insurance entities account for and report certain deferred costs and prepaid expenses, organized into a General Subsection and a Reinsurance Contracts Subsection. Its operative rule is that amounts an insurer pays a reinsurer for the unexpired portion of reinsured contracts — prepaid reinsurance premiums — must be reported separately as assets (340-944-25-1), rather than netted against related liabilities.

This Subtopic covers "other assets and deferred costs" of health care entities — prepaid expenses, deposits, and deferred expenses, including amounts paid to physicians for future services such as administering a hospital department or providing community services that further the entity's mission (340-954-05-2). If such prepaid costs are deferred, they must be amortized over the period benefited (340-954-35-2), and all such items are classified as current or noncurrent as appropriate (340-954-45-1). The former recognition guidance (Sections 25 and part of 35) was superseded by ASU 2014-09, so contract cost questions now fall under ASC 340-40 and revenue under ASC 606.

This Subtopic governs deferred cost recognition for real estate time-sharing activities. The default rule is that all costs incurred to sell time-sharing intervals are expensed as incurred unless they qualify for capitalization as incremental costs of obtaining a contract under 340-40-25-1 through 25-4. Seller financing costs (e.g., loan origination costs) follow Subtopic 310-20, and incremental costs to rent units during holding periods are deferred and then expensed (or netted against inventory) when the rental occurs.

This Subtopic applies Topic 740's deferred tax model to casino entities, identifying the common situations where casino book accounting diverges from income tax reporting. Under 740-924-25-1, deferred income taxes arise from three recurring casino differences: casino receivables recognized for books but taxed when collected, costs deferred for books but expensed for tax, and progressive slot jackpots accrued from meter readings for books but deducted for tax when paid. It provides no separate scope, following the scope of Subtopic 924-10 (740-924-15-1).