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Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2013
Revenue Recognition

Revenue recognition: The Company recognizes revenue when all four revenue recognition criteria have been met: persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, the Company has delivered the product or performed the service, the fee is fixed or determinable, and collectability is probable. Determining whether and when these criteria have been satisfied involves exercising judgment and using estimates and assumptions that can have an impact on the timing and amount of revenue that the Company recognizes.

The Company also evaluates whether revenue should be presented on a gross basis, which is the amount that a customer pays for the service or product, or on a net basis, which is the customer payment less amounts the Company pays to suppliers. In making that evaluation, the Company considers indicators such as whether the Company is the primary obligor in the arrangement and assumes the risks and rewards as a principal in the customer transaction, including the credit risk, and whether the Company can set the sales price and select suppliers. The accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) clearly indicate that the evaluation of these factors, which at times can be contradictory, are subject to significant judgment and subjectivity.

Search Services Revenue Recognition

Search services revenue recognition: The majority of the Company’s revenues are generated from its web search services. The Company generates search services revenue when an end user of such services clicks on a paid search link provided by a Search Customer and displayed on a distribution partners’ web property or on one of the Company’s owned and operated web properties. The Search Customer that provided the paid search link receives a fee from the advertiser who paid for the click and the Search Customer pays the Company a portion of that fee. Revenue is recognized in the period in which the services are provided (i.e., when a paid search occurs) and is based on the amounts earned by and ultimately remitted to the Company. This revenue is recorded in the Search segment.

Under the Company’s agreements with its Search Customers and its distribution partners, the Company is the primary obligor, separately negotiates each revenue or unit pricing contract independent of any revenue sharing arrangements, and assumes the credit risk for amounts invoiced to its Search Customers. For search services, the Company determines the paid search results, content, and information directed to its owned and operated websites and its distribution partners’ web properties.

The Company earns revenue from its Search Customers by providing paid search results generated from its owned and operated web properties and from its distribution partners’ web properties based on separately negotiated and agreed-upon terms with each distribution partner. Consequently, the Company records search services revenue on a gross basis.

Tax Preparation Revenue Recognition

Tax preparation revenue recognition: The Company derives revenue from the sale of tax preparation online services, ancillary service offerings, packaged tax preparation software products, and multiple element arrangements that may include a combination of these items. Ancillary service offerings include tax preparation support services, data archive services, bank or reloadable pre-paid debit card services, e-filing services, and other value-added services. This revenue is recorded in the Tax Preparation segment.

The Company’s tax preparation segment service revenue consists primarily of hosted tax preparation online services, tax preparation support services, data archive services, and e-filing services. The Company recognizes revenue from these services as the services are performed and the four revenue recognition criteria described above are met.

The Company recognizes revenue from the sale of its packaged software products when legal title transfers. This is generally when its customers download products from the Web or when the products ship.

The bank or reloadable prepaid debit card services are offered to taxpayers as an option to receive their tax refunds in the form of a prepaid bank card or to have the fees for the product and/or services purchased by the customers deducted from their refunds. Other value-added service revenue consists of revenue from revenue sharing and royalty arrangements with third party partners. Revenue for these transactions is recognized when the four revenue recognition criteria described above are met; for some arrangements that is upon filing and for other arrangements that is upon the Company’s determination of when collectability is probable.

For products and/or services that consist of multiple elements, the Company must: (1) determine whether and when each element has been delivered; (2) determine the fair value of each element using the selling price hierarchy of vendor-specific objective evidence (“VSOE”) of fair value if available, third-party evidence (“TPE”) of fair value if VSOE is not available, and estimated selling price (“ESP”) if neither VSOE nor TPE is available; and (3) allocate the total price among the various elements based on the relative selling price method. Once the Company has allocated the total price among the various elements, it recognizes revenue when the revenue recognition criteria described above are met for each element.

VSOE generally exists when the Company sells the deliverable separately and is normally able to establish VSOE for all deliverables in these multiple element arrangements; however, in certain instances VSOE cannot be established. This may be because the Company infrequently sells each element separately, or has a limited sales history. When VSOE cannot be established, the Company attempts to establish a selling price for each element based on TPE. TPE is determined based on competitor prices for similar deliverables when sold separately. When the Company is unable to establish selling price using VSOE or TPE, it uses ESP in its allocation of arrangement consideration. ESP is the estimated price at which the Company would sell a product or service if it were sold on a stand-alone basis. The Company determines ESP for a product or service by considering multiple factors including, but not limited to, historical stand-alone sales, pricing practices, market conditions, competitive landscape, internal costs, and gross margin objectives.

In some situations, the Company receives advance payments from its customers. The Company defers revenue associated with these advance payments and recognizes the allocated consideration for each element when the Company ships the products or performs the services, as appropriate. Advance payments related to data archive services are deferred and recognized over the related contractual term.

Debt Issuance Costs and Debt Discount

Debt Issuance Costs and Debt Discount: Debt issuance costs and debt discounts are deferred and amortized as interest expense under the effective interest method over the contractual term of the related debt, adjusted for prepayments in the case of the Company’s credit facility (see “Note 8: Debt”).

Debt issuance costs related to the Company’s Convertible Senior Notes (the “Notes”) issued in 2013 were allocated to the liability and equity components of the instrument. The debt issuance costs allocated to the liability component are amortized to interest expense through the earlier of the maturity date of the Notes or the date of conversion, if any. The debt issuance costs allocated to the equity component of the Notes were recorded as an offset to additional paid in capital (See “Note 8: Debt”).