ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND PRONOUNCEMENTS ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND PRONOUNCEMENTS (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2018

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Accounting Policies and Pronouncements

In August 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-15, Classification of Certain Cash Receipts and Cash Payments. The standard addresses how certain cash receipts and payments are presented and classified in the statement of cash flows, including debt extinguishment costs, distributions from equity method investees and contingent consideration payments made after a business combination. The effective date of this standard is for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2017. The Company adopted this standard retrospectively, as of January 1, 2018. ASU 2016-15 had no impact on the Company's presentation of operating, investing and financing activities related to certain cash receipts and payments on its consolidated statements of cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2017.

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses. The standard modifies the impairment model for most financial assets, including trade accounts receivables and loans, and will require the use of an “expected loss” model for instruments measured at amortized cost. Under this model, entities will be required to estimate the lifetime expected credit loss on such instruments and record an allowance to offset the amortized cost basis of the financial asset, resulting in a net presentation of the amount expected to be collected on the financial asset. The effective date of the standard is for fiscal years, and for interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2019, with early adoption permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the adoption of ASU 2016-13 on its consolidated financial statements.

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, Leases. ASU 2016-02 is codified in Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 842. The standard amends the existing accounting standards for lease accounting, including requiring lessees to recognize most leases on their balance sheets and making targeted changes to lessor accounting. The effective date of this standard is for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2018, with early adoption permitted. The standard requires a modified retrospective transition approach for all leases existing at, or entered into after, the date of initial application. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adopting ASU 2016-02 on the consolidated financial statements. The Company anticipates a material increase to assets and liabilities as it will be required to capitalize its ground leases, office leases and certain office equipment leases where the Company is the lessee.

In January 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-01, Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities, which will require entities to recognize changes in equity investments with readily determinable fair values in net income. For equity investments without readily determinable fair values, the ASU permits the application of a measurement alternative using the cost of the investment, less any impairments, plus or minus changes resulting from observable price changes for an identical or similar investment of the same issuer. The effective date of the standard is for fiscal periods, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2017, and it must be adopted via a cumulative-effect adjustment to the balance sheet as of the beginning of the fiscal year of adoption. The Company adopted the guidance as of January 1, 2018. As none of the Company's equity investments have readily determinable fair values, the adoption of this ASU does not have an impact on its consolidated financial statements.

The following is a summary of recently issued and other notable accounting pronouncements which relate to HHC's business.

In February 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-02, Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income, that allows a reclassification from accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings for stranded tax effects resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The effective date of the standard is for fiscal periods, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2018. The amendments must be applied either in the period of adoption or retrospectively to each period (or periods) in which the effect of the change in the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is recognized. Early adoption is permitted. The Company adopted ASU 2018-02 as of January 1, 2018, and an election was made to reclassify $1.1 million from accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings.

In August 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-12, Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Targeted Improvements to Accounting for Hedging Activities, to enable entities to better portray the economic results of their risk management activities in their financial statements. The ASU expands an entity’s ability to hedge nonfinancial and financial risk components and reduce complexity in fair value hedges of interest rate risk and eases certain documentation and assessment requirements and modifies the accounting for components excluded from the assessment of hedge effectiveness. The ASU also eliminates the requirement to separately measure and report hedge ineffectiveness and generally requires the entire change in the fair value of a hedging instrument to be presented in the same Consolidated Statements of Operations line as the hedged item. The effective date of the standard is for fiscal periods, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2018. The new standard must be adopted using a modified retrospective approach with early adoption permitted. The Company adopted ASU 2017-12 as of January 1, 2018 and, as a result, $0.7 million of ineffectiveness recognized prior to 2018 for its swaps was reclassified to Accumulated deficit from Accumulated other comprehensive income.

In May 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-09, Compensation - Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Scope of Modification Accounting, to provide clarity and reduce the diversity in practice and cost and complexity when applying the guidance in Topic 718, Compensation-Stock Compensation. Stakeholders observed that the definition of the term “modification” is broad and that its interpretation results in diversity in practice. The ASU states that when an entity concludes that a change is not substantive, then modification accounting does not apply. The effective date of the standard is for fiscal periods, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2017. The new standard must be adopted prospectively to an award modified on or after the adoption date. Early adoption is permitted. The Company adopted ASU 2017-09 as of January 1, 2018 and, as a result, will apply this guidance to any modifications made to either the stock option or restricted stock award plans. 

In February 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-05, Other Income - Gains and Losses from the Derecognition of Nonfinancial Assets (Subtopic 610-20). The standard defines an “in-substance non-financial asset” as a financial asset promised to a counterparty in a contract if substantially all the fair value of the assets is concentrated in nonfinancial assets. The ASU also provides guidance for accounting for partial sales of non-financial assets such as real estate. The effective date of the standard is for fiscal periods, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2017. The new standard must be adopted retrospectively with early adoption permitted. The Company adopted ASU 2017-05 as of January 1, 2018, and it did not have a material effect on the Company’s financial position or results of operations as the Company has no partial sales in the current period.

In January 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-04, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other (Topic 350). This standard is intended to simplify the subsequent measurement of goodwill by eliminating step two from the goodwill impairment test. Instead, an entity will perform only step one of its quantitative goodwill impairment test by comparing the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount and then recognizing the impairment charge for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit's fair value. An entity will still have the option to perform a qualitative assessment for a reporting unit to determine if the quantitative step one impairment test is necessary. The effective date of the standard is for fiscal periods, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2019. The new standard must be adopted prospectively with early adoption permitted. The Company does not expect the adoption of this ASU to have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.

In November 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-18, Statement of Cash Flows - Restricted Cash, which requires entities to show the changes in the total of cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents in the statement of cash flows. The effective date of the standard is for fiscal periods, and interim periods within those years, beginning after