Attachment A. Proposed Changes to BE-15 Forms

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Attachment A

Proposed Changes to the BE-15 Annual Survey of

Foreign Direct Investment in the United States, 2008

1. Eliminate selected data items – The following data items will no longer be collected:

   1. Selected balance sheet items: cash, current receivables, allowances for doubtful accounts, other current assets, other noncurrent assets, current liabilities and long-term debt, other noncurrent liabilities

   2. The breakdown of sales of services to foreign persons into sales of services to the foreign parent group, to foreign affiliates owned by the affiliate, and to other foreign persons

   3. The breakdown of employment and employee compensation by occupational classification

   4. The breakdown of total employee compensation into wages and salaries and employee benefit plans

   5. Composition of external finances (8 items)

   6. Research & development employees

   7. Imports of goods intended for further manufacture

   8. Manufacturing employment by state

   9. Gross property, plant, and equipment by state

   10. Commercial property by state

   11. Wholesale and retail trade items: cost of goods purchased for resale and inventory of goods purchased for resale

2. Raise reporting thresholds and increase use of sampling

BE-15 reporting thresholds based on assets, sales, and net income

Form For 2006	Current reporting threshold (2006)	Form for 2008	Proposed reporting threshold (2008)
BE-15 (LF)	$125 million large majority-owned affiliates	BE-15A	$275 million large majority-owned affiliates
BE-15 (SF)	$30 million minority-owned and small majority-owned affiliates	BE-15B	$120 million minority-owned and small majority-owned affiliates
BE-15 (EZ)	Used for sampling in place of the short form with selected U.S. affiliates on a rotating basis (usually in 1 of the 4 years between benchmarks)	BE-15 (EZ)	$40 million with sampling (companies report only every other year)