ComprehensiveIncomeNetOfTaxComprehensiveIncomeNetOfTaxIncludingPortionAttributableToNoncontrollingInterestComprehensiveIncomeNetOfTaxAttributableToNoncontrollingInterestComprehensive income is the total change in a company's equity during a period from everything except transactions with its owners. It equals net income plus other comprehensive income (OCI), the gains and losses that accounting standards keep out of net income, such as currency translation adjustments and unrealized gains or losses on certain debt securities.
Investments by shareholders and distributions to them, such as share issuances, buybacks, and dividends, are excluded. What remains is the full after-tax result of the company's activities and of changes in the value of what it holds.
Comprehensive income is reported under ASC 220. A company presents it either in one continuous statement, with net income followed by the components of OCI and a comprehensive income total, or in two consecutive statements: the income statement, then a separate statement of comprehensive income that begins with net income. Either way, the OCI components are shown net of tax or before tax with the related tax shown separately.
When a company has subsidiaries it does not wholly own, comprehensive income is split between the parent's shareholders and the noncontrolling interests. In XBRL filings the total including both is tagged ComprehensiveIncomeNetOfTaxIncludingPortionAttributableToNoncontrollingInterest, the portion belonging to noncontrolling interests is ComprehensiveIncomeNetOfTaxAttributableToNoncontrollingInterest, and the parent's share, which is the figure most filers report as their comprehensive income, is ComprehensiveIncomeNetOfTax.
The gap between net income and comprehensive income is worth watching. For most industrial companies it is small and driven by currency movements and pension remeasurements. For banks and insurers holding large portfolios of available-for-sale debt securities, rising interest rates can produce OCI losses large enough that comprehensive income falls far below net income, even though none of it has passed through earnings.
A: Net income includes only the gains and losses that flow through the income statement. Comprehensive income adds other comprehensive income, the gains and losses that bypass net income and go straight to equity.
A: In a statement of comprehensive income, which is either combined with the income statement in one continuous statement or presented immediately after it as a separate statement.
A: No. Dividends, buybacks, and share issuances are transactions with owners, so they change equity without affecting comprehensive income.
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