Summary of Changes to BE-15 Annual Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States

Proposed Changes to 2013 BE-15, Annual Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States

The 2013 BE-15, as proposed, incorporates changes that were made to the 2012 BE-12, Benchmark Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States. Proposed changes to the BE-15 survey forms and reporting requirements are listed below. BE-15 and BE-12 survey forms are available at www.bea.gov/fdi.

Data items added

The following items will be added to the BE-15 survey:

• Cash – will be added to the BE-15A to make the BE-15A balance sheet consistent with the balance sheet on the 2012 BE-12 survey.

• Fair value accounting for PP&E – will be added to the BE-15A to aid in evaluating the impact of fair value accounting on value added. This was a new item on the 2012 BE-12A.

• Banking industry activities – items will be added to the BE-15A for use in estimating FISIM for the services supplied statistics. These items were added to the 2012 BE-12A.

• List of U.S. business enterprises consolidated – will be added to the BE-15C to aid in determining whether the correct entities are being consolidated. These questions are already part of the BE-15A and BE-15B.

• List of U.S. affiliates not consolidated – will be added to BE-15C to improve coverage of indirectly owned affiliates. These questions are already part of the BE-15A and BE-15B.

Change to form name

BE-15 EZ becomes BE-15C.

Changes to consolidation rules

The consolidation rule for the survey will be modified (a change that was made to the BE-12 survey) to be more consistent with U.S. GAAP. Under the new rule, a U.S. affiliate must file on a fully consolidated domestic U.S. basis, including in the full consolidation all U.S. business enterprises proceeding down each ownership chain whose voting securities are more than 50 percent owned by the U.S. business enterprise above.

Exemption levels and sampling

• Exemption levels:

  • BE-15A threshold will increase from $275 million to $300 million.

  • BE-15B threshold will remain at $120 million.

  • BE-15C threshold will remain at $40 million.

• Sampling:

  • Companies that meet the filing requirements for the BE-15C may be selected to be exempt from filing for a particular year.

  • Companies that meet the filing requirements for the BE-15B may be selected to file a BE-15C instead of a BE-15B for a particular year.