Essential Utilities, Inc. New Standards Disclosure
Pronouncements to be adopted upon the effective date:
In November 2024, the FASB issued ASU 2024-03, “Income Statement Reporting–Comprehensive Income–Expense Disaggregation Disclosures (Subtopic 220-40), Disaggregation of Income Statement Expenses”. The standard update improves the disclosures about a public business entity’s expenses by requiring more detailed information about the types of expenses (including purchases of inventory, employee compensation, depreciation and amortization) included within income statement expense captions. The guidance will be effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2026, and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2027. Early adoption is permitted. The standard updates are to be applied prospectively with the option for retrospective application. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adoption of the standard update on its financial statement disclosures.
In March 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued its final climate disclosure rule, which requires the disclosure of Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions and other climate-related topics in annual reports and registration statements, when material. A number of petitions have been filed in federal courts seeking to challenge the SEC’s climate disclosure rule. As a result, in April 2024, the SEC placed a pause on its implementation of the new rule. Depending on the outcome of the proceedings, we will include the required disclosures once it becomes effective.
Pronouncements adopted during the fiscal year:
In December 2023, the FASB issued ASU 2023-09, "Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures". The ASU enhances the transparency and decision usefulness of income tax disclosures and is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2024 on a prospective basis. Early adoption is permitted. We adopted this ASU on a prospective basis, starting with this 2025 annual report.
Recently issued accounting standards or pronouncements not disclosed above have been excluded as they are not relevant to the Company.
Historical Timeline
| Fiscal Year | Filed | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Feb 26, 2026 | Showing above |
| 2024 | Feb 27, 2025 | |
| 2023 | Feb 29, 2024 | |
| 2022 | Mar 1, 2023 | |
| 2021 | Mar 1, 2022 | |
| 2020 | Mar 1, 2021 | |
| 2019 | Feb 28, 2020 | |
| 2018 | Feb 26, 2019 | |
| 2017 | Feb 28, 2018 | |
| 2016 | Feb 24, 2017 | |
| 2015 | Feb 26, 2016 | |
About New Standards Disclosures
New accounting standards disclosures describe recently adopted pronouncements and those not yet effective, along with management's assessment of their expected impact. This section provides an early warning system for upcoming changes to how a company reports its financial results, often years before the new rules take effect.
Key signals: when management describes a not-yet-adopted standard's impact as "material" or "still being evaluated," it signals potential significant changes to reported metrics upon adoption. Watch for standards that affect a company's core operations — for example, revenue recognition changes for software companies or lease accounting changes for retailers with large store footprints. The transition method chosen (full retrospective versus modified retrospective) affects comparability with prior periods. Companies that delay adoption to the latest permitted date may be struggling with implementation complexity. Compare the disclosed impact assessments against peers in the same industry to gauge whether management's expectations are reasonable.