Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Summary Of Significant Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X.  Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States for complete financial statements.  In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals) and certain reclassifications considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included.  Operating results for the six months ended June 30, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2020.

In preparation of the Company’s financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, management makes estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements as well as the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period.  Actual results could differ from these estimates.  In response to the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic, management evaluated whether its estimates, such as lease collectibility (see discussion below) and impairment, required revised approaches and generally concluded that no revisions were necessary at this time.

The balance sheets at December 31, 2019 have been derived from the audited financial statements at that date but do not include all of the information and footnotes required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States for complete financial statements.

For further information, including definitions of capitalized terms not defined herein, refer to the consolidated financial statements and footnotes thereto included in the Company’s and the Operating Partnership’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019.

Income and Other Taxes

EQR has elected to be taxed as a REIT.  This, along with the nature of the operations of its operating properties, resulted in no provision for federal income taxes at the EQR level.  In addition, ERPOP generally is not liable for federal income taxes as the partners recognize their allocable share of income or loss in their tax returns; therefore no provision for federal income taxes has been made at the ERPOP level.  Historically, the Company has generally only incurred certain state and local income, excise and franchise taxes.  The Company has elected taxable REIT subsidiary (“TRS”) status for certain of its corporate subsidiaries and, as a result, these entities will incur both federal and state income taxes on any taxable income of such entities after consideration of any net operating losses.

On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”).  The CARES Act was enacted to provide economic relief to companies and individuals in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Included in the CARES Act are tax provisions which increase allowable interest expense deductions for 2019 and 2020 and increase the ability for taxpayers to use net operating losses.  While we do not expect these provisions to result in a material impact to the Company’s taxable income or tax liabilities, the Company will continue to analyze the provisions of the CARES Act and related guidance as it is published.  

The CARES Act also allows corporations to request accelerated refunds of their alternative minimum tax (“AMT”) credit.  Prior to enactment of this provision, the remaining credits would have been refunded in installments in 2020, 2021 and 2022.  We have filed a claim and expect to receive a refund of our remaining $1.6 million of AMT credit in 2020.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

In March 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued an amendment to the reference rate reform standard which provides the option for a limited period of time to ease the potential burden in accounting for, or recognizing the effects of, reference rate reform on contract modifications and hedge accounting.  An example of such reform is the expected market transition from the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) and other interbank offered rates to alternative reference rates.  Entities that make this optional expedient election would not have to remeasure the contracts at the modification date or reassess the accounting treatment if certain criteria are met and would continue applying hedge accounting for relationships affected by reference rate reform. The new standard was effective for the Company upon issuance and elections can be made through December 31, 2022.  The Company is currently evaluating its options with regards to existing contracts and hedging relationships and the impact of adopting this update on its consolidated results of operations and financial position.

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

In April 2020, a FASB staff question and answer document was issued which intended to reduce the challenges of evaluating the enforceable rights and obligations of leases for concessions granted to lessees in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  We elected not to evaluate whether qualifying concessions provided by the Company in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are a lease modification, subject to the criteria that the total payments under the amended lease cannot result in a substantial increase in the rights of the lessor or obligations of the lessee.  We also elected to treat the concessions as though they were contemplated as part of the existing contracts and therefore will not apply lease modification rules to the qualifying lease concession amendments.  As such, deferrals deemed collectible are recorded as rental receivables with no change to timing of rental revenues and deferrals deemed non-collectible and abatements reduce rental revenues in the deferral/abatement period and cause rental revenues to effectively follow a cash basis related to the changes.  The accounting elections provided by the FASB mainly apply to the Company’s non-residential leases and the majority of the amendments will not require a straight-line adjustment.  During the quarter ended June 30, 2020, we have granted rent payment deferrals/abatements to our non-residential tenants of $4.5 million, of which $4.1 million reduced rental revenues.

In June 2016, the FASB issued a standard which requires companies to adopt a new approach for estimating credit losses on certain types of financial instruments, such as trade and other receivables and loans.  The standard requires entities to estimate a lifetime expected credit loss for most financial instruments, including trade receivables. In November 2018, the FASB issued an amendment excluding operating lease receivables accounted for under the leases standard from the scope of the credit losses standard.  The Company adopted this standard as required effective January 1, 2020 and it did not have a material effect on its consolidated results of operations and financial position.

In February 2016, the FASB issued a lease standard which sets out principles for the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of leases for both parties to a contract (i.e. lessors and lessees).  The Company adopted this standard as required effective January 1, 2019 using a modified retrospective method and the Company applied the guidance as of the adoption date and elected certain practical expedients, as described below.  The standard impacted our consolidated balance sheets but did not impact our consolidated statements of operations. Right-of-use (“ROU”) assets and lease liabilities where the Company is the lessee were recognized for various corporate office leases and ground leases.  The Company recorded ROU assets and related lease liabilities to its opening balance sheet upon adoption on January 1, 2019 of $434.2 million and $278.3 million, respectively.

The Company elected the practical expedient to not reassess the classification of existing operating leases.  As of January 1, 2019, any new or modified ground leases may be classified as financing leases unless they meet certain conditions. When there is a material lease modification, the Company is required to reassess the classification and remeasure the lease liability.  The Company also elected the practical expedient to account for both its lease and non-lease components as a single component under the leases standard. See Note 8 for additional discussion regarding the lease standard.

In August 2017, the FASB issued a final standard which makes changes to the hedge accounting model to enable entities to better portray their risk management activities in the financial statements.  The standard expands an entity’s ability to hedge nonfinancial and financial risk components, reduces complexity in fair value hedges of interest rate risk and eases certain documentation and assessment requirements.  The standard also eliminates the requirement to separately measure and report hedge ineffectiveness and generally requires the entire change in the fair value of any hedging instrument to be presented in the same income statement line as the hedged instrument.  The Company adopted this standard as required effective January 1, 2019 and it did not have a material effect on its consolidated results of operations and financial position.