Financial Report of the U.S. Government: Statement of Net Cost

Costs and earned revenues are presented in this dataset on an accrual basis, while the budget presents outlays and receipts, generally on a cash basis. The focus of the U.S. budget is determined by entity. These entities prepare, defend, and monitor the budgets. Individual entity net cost amounts will differ from the entity's financial statements primarily because of reallocations completed at the government-wide level, including employee benefit costs, intragovernmental eliminations as adjusted for buy/sell costs and related revenues, and imputed costs. Because of its specific function, most of the employee benefit costs originally associated with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have been reallocated to the user entities for government-wide reporting purposes. The remaining costs for OPM on the Statements of Net Cost are the administrative operating costs, the expenses from prior costs from health and pension plan amendments, and the actuarial gains and losses, if applicable.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is the primary provider of goods and services to federal entities. GSA's net cost is adjusted for its intragovernmental buy/sell costs and related revenues. The remaining costs for GSA on the Statements of Net Cost are administrative operating costs. With regard to intragovernmental buy/sell costs and related revenues, the amounts recognized by each entity are added to, and subtracted from, respectively, the individual entity non-federal net cost amounts.

In addition, the intragovernmental imputed costs recognized for the receipt of goods and services, financed in whole or part by the providing entities, are added to the individual entity non-federal net cost amounts. The most significant types of imputed costs that are recorded relate to post-retirement and health benefits, the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, and the Treasury Judgment Fund. The consolidated Statements of Net Cost is intended to show the full cost for each entity, therefore, the amount of these imputed costs is added back to the reporting entities' gross cost line item and subtracted from the applicable administering entities' gross cost line item. These imputed costs have a net effect of zero on the Statements of Net Cost in the Financial Report.

The interest on securities issued by the Department of the Treasury and held by the public is reported on Treasury's financial statements, but, because of its importance and the dollar amounts involved, it is reported separately in these statements. This dataset allows users to review the budget integrity, operating performance, stewardship, and systems and controls of the government.