SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

NOTE 1 — SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of AptarGroup, Inc. and its subsidiaries.  The terms “AptarGroup” or “Company” as used herein refer to AptarGroup, Inc. and its subsidiaries.  All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated.

In the opinion of management, the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include all adjustments, consisting of only normal recurring adjustments, necessary for a fair statement of consolidated financial position, results of operations, comprehensive income, changes in equity and cash flows for the interim periods presented.  The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared by the Company, pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).  Certain information and footnote disclosure normally included in financial statements prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) have been condensed or omitted pursuant to such rules and regulations, although the Company believes that the disclosures made are adequate to make the information presented not misleading.  Also, certain financial position data included herein was derived from the audited consolidated financial statements included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011 but does not include all disclosures required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.  Accordingly, these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011.  The results of operations of any interim period are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year.

ADOPTION OF RECENT ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

Changes to GAAP are established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) in the form of accounting standards updates to the FASB’s Accounting Standards Codification.

In May 2011, the FASB amended the guidance on fair value measurement and disclosure requirements.  The amended guidance results in a consistent definition of fair value and common requirements for measurement of and disclosure about fair value between GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”).  This guidance is effective for the Company’s fiscal year ending December 31, 2012 (including interim periods).  The adoption of this standard had no impact on the Consolidated Financial Statements other than disclosure.

In June 2011, the FASB amended the guidance for the presentation of comprehensive income.  The objective of this update is to improve the comparability, consistency, and transparency of financial reporting by increasing the prominence of items reported in other comprehensive income.  This update requires that all non-owner changes in stockholders’ equity be presented in either a single continuous statement of comprehensive income or in two separate but consecutive statements.  The amendments in this update are effective for the Company’s fiscal year ending December 31, 2012 (including interim periods).  In December 2011, the FASB indefinitely deferred the guidance related to the presentation of reclassification adjustments out of other comprehensive income.  The adoption of this standard results in the presentation of a new statement of comprehensive income.  Otherwise, the adoption had no other impact on the Consolidated Financial Statements.

INCOME TAXES

The Company computes taxes on income in accordance with the tax rules and regulations of the many taxing authorities where the income is earned.  The income tax rates imposed by these taxing authorities may vary substantially.  Taxable income may differ from pretax income for financial accounting purposes.  To the extent that these differences create differences between the tax basis of an asset or liability and its reported amount in the financial statements, an appropriate provision for deferred income taxes is made.

In its determination of which foreign earnings are permanently reinvested in foreign operations, the Company considers numerous factors, including the financial requirements of the U.S. parent company and those of its foreign subsidiaries, the U.S. funding needs for dividend payments and stock repurchases, and the tax consequences of remitting earnings to the U.S.  From this analysis, current year repatriation decisions are made in an attempt to provide a proper mix of debt and shareholder capital both within the U.S. and for non-U.S. operations.  The Company’s policy is to permanently reinvest its accumulated foreign earnings and only will make a distribution out of current year earnings to meet the cash needs at the parent company.  As such, the company does not provide for taxes on earnings that are deemed to be permanently reinvested.  The effective tax rate for 2012 includes the estimated tax cost of repatriating $82 million of current year earnings, of which approximately $46 million was repatriated in the first quarter of 2012.

The Company provides a liability for the amount of tax benefits realized from uncertain tax positions.  This liability is provided whenever the Company determines that a tax benefit will not meet a more-likely-than-not threshold for recognition.  See Note 12 for more information.