NORWALK, Conn. — The Financial Accounting Standards Board has deferred a requirement that credit unions estimate and list their tax liabilities on their financial statements for 2007. Previously, the Board had promulgated a rule that the information had to be included as of Dec. 15, 2006 but has deferred the application of the rule to data after Dec. 15, 2007.

The deferment will mean that state chartered CUs will not have to estimate their potential tax liabilities for unrelated business activity for 2007. FASB had ruled that nonpublic entities like CUs would not be able to defer listing their real and potential tax liabilities. But credit unions had pointed out that the Internal Revenue Service had not finalized its understanding on tax liabilities for state chartered credit unions and that CUs had not had enough time to include the information on their financial statements for 2007.

The issue of just what is or is not considered an unrelated business activity for a state chartered credit union is currently the subject of a federal court case.