Comprehensive income

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[edit] Accounting

Comprehensive income is defined by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB,^[1] as “the change in equity [net assets] of a business enterprise during a period from transactions and other events and circumstances from nonowner sources. It includes all changes in equity during a period except those resulting from investments by owners and distributions to owners.”

Comprehensive income is the sum of net income and other items that must bypass the income statement because they have not been realized, including items like an unrealized holding gain or loss from available for sale securities and foreign currency translation gains or losses. These items are not part of net income, yet are important enough to be included in comprehensive income, giving the user a bigger, more comprehensive picture of the organization as a whole.

Items included in comprehensive income, but not net income are reported under the accumulated other comprehensive income section of shareholder's equity.

[edit] Economic

Comprehensive income (or earnings) attempts to measure the sum total of all operating and financial events that have changed the value of an owner's interest in a business. It is measured on a per-share basis to capture the effects of dilution and options. It cancels out the effects of Equity transactions for which the owner would be indifferent; issues of dividends; share buy-backs; share issues at market value.

It is calculated by reconciling the the book-value-per-share from the start of the period to the end of the period. This is conceptually the same as measuring a child's growth by finding the difference between his height on each birthday. All other line items are calculated, and the equation solved for Comprehensive Earnings.

      Shareholders' Equity, beg. of period
    - Dividends
    + Premium to book value received from new shares
           (and vice versa)
    + Comprehensive Earnings (and vice versa)
    ------------------------------------------ 
    = Shareholders' Equity, end of period