Noncurrent (Long-Term) Liabilities

Category

Balance Sheet

Units

Currency

Formula

Total Liabilities − Total Current Liabilities (when not reported directly)

US-GAAP elements

LiabilitiesNoncurrentLiabilitiesLiabilitiesCurrent

Reference

Regulation S-X Rule 5-02 (Balance sheets); ASC 210, Balance Sheet

Source

Reported in SEC EDGAR filings (US-GAAP XBRL taxonomy)

Total noncurrent liabilities is the sum of the obligations a company does not expect to settle within one year or its normal operating cycle, whichever is longer. It typically includes long-term debt, noncurrent lease liabilities, deferred income taxes, pension and other postretirement obligations, long-term deferred revenue, and other long-term liabilities.

These obligations represent the company's longer-dated financing and commitments, as opposed to the payables and short-term debt that come due in the current cycle.

Regulation S-X Rule 5-02 lists the noncurrent liability captions for commercial companies, including bonds, mortgages, and other long-term debt (5-02.22), indebtedness to related parties (5-02.23), other liabilities (5-02.24), and deferred credits such as deferred income taxes (5-02.26). It provides no noncurrent subtotal. In XBRL the subtotal, when a company reports it, is tagged LiabilitiesNoncurrent. Otherwise it is derived by subtracting LiabilitiesCurrent from Liabilities, and where total liabilities is not reported either, it must be built up from the individual lines.

Derived figures need care. Redeemable preferred stock and other temporary equity sit outside liabilities and should not be included. The measure also applies only to classified balance sheets, not to banks and insurers, which present liabilities without a current and noncurrent split. Classification shifts between the two totals can be large: a bond moves to current liabilities in the year before it matures, lowering noncurrent liabilities with no change in total debt, and a refinancing moves it back.

Noncurrent liabilities are mostly long-term financing, which carries less immediate liquidity risk than current obligations but still has to be serviced. Analysts look at the mix: long-term debt and leases are fixed financial claims, deferred taxes may not require cash for many years, and pension obligations depend on actuarial assumptions. Comparing noncurrent liabilities plus equity with noncurrent assets shows whether long-lived assets are funded with long-term sources.