Long-term and Other Liabilities
Long-term liabilities are those obligations that will not require the use of current assets within the current year or operating cycle. These obligations include bonds, notes, mortgages, and capital lease obligations and are originally valued at the amount of consideration received by the entity incurring the obligation. The resulting debt valuation implies that the beginning loan balance is equal to the present value of the debt instrument’s future cash flows discounted at the rate charged by the creditor ( the market or effective rate of interest). In those cases where the market rate differs from the rate stated on the debt instrument or when there is no stated rate, the debt will be issued at a premium or a discount. GAAP requires that premiums or discounts on long-term obligations should be written off over the life of the obligation to properly reflect the effective interest rate on the debt. In such cases, the conventions of realization and Matching dictate the balance sheet presentation of long-term liabilities. This is an example of the use of discounted cash-flow techniques to measure a balance sheet element.