Financial Statements of the United States Government for the Fiscal Years Ended September 30, 2020, and 2019

Balance Sheets

The Balance Sheets show the government’s assets, liabilities, and net position. When combined with stewardship information, this information presents a more comprehensive understanding of the government’s financial position. The net position for funds from dedicated collections is shown separately.

Assets

Assets included on the Balance Sheets are resources of the government that remain available to meet future needs. The most significant assets that are reported on the Balance Sheets are direct loans and loan guarantees receivable, net , general PP&E, net; inventory and related property, net; and cash and other monetary assets. There are, however, other significant resources available to the government that extend beyond the assets presented in these Balance Sheets. Those resources include stewardship PP&E in addition to the government’s sovereign powers to tax and set monetary policy.

Liabilities and Net Position

Liabilities are obligations of the government resulting from prior actions that will require financial resources. The most significant liabilities reported on the Balance Sheets are federal debt and interest payable and federal employee and veteran benefits payable. Liabilities also include environmental and disposal liabilities, benefits due and payable, loan guarantees liability, as well as insurance and guarantee program liabilities.

As with reported assets, the government’s responsibilities, policy commitments, and contingencies are much broader than these reported Balance Sheet liabilities. They include the social insurance programs reported in the SOSI and disclosed in the unaudited RSI—Social Insurance section, fiscal long-term projections of non-interest spending reported in the SLTFP, and a wide range of other programs under which the government provides benefits and services to the people of this nation, as well as certain future loss contingencies.

The government has entered into contractual commitments requiring the future use of financial resources and has unresolved contingencies where existing conditions, situations, or circumstances create uncertainty about future losses. Commitments and contingencies that do not meet the criteria for recognition as liabilities on the Balance Sheets, but for which there is at least a reasonable possibility that losses have been incurred, are disclosed in Note 19—Commitments and Note 20—Contingencies.

Unmatched transactions and balances are adjustments needed to bring the change in net position into balance due primarily to unreconciled intra-governmental differences. See Note 1.S—Unmatched Transactions and Balances for additional information.

The unmatched transactions are included in net operating cost on the Statement of Operations and Changes in Net Position to make the sum of net operating costs and adjustments to beginning net position for the year equal to the change in net position balance. The unmatched balances are included in the net position, funds other than those from dedicated collections on the Balance Sheet and as a separate reconciling item on the face of the Balance Sheet.

The collection of certain taxes and other revenue is credited to the corresponding funds from dedicated collections that will use these funds to meet a particular government purpose. If the collections from taxes and other sources exceed the payments to the beneficiaries, the excess revenue is invested in Treasury securities or deposited in the General Fund; therefore, the trust fund balances do not represent cash. An explanation of the trust funds for social insurance is included in Note 21—Funds from Dedicated Collections. That note also contains information about trust fund receipts, disbursements, and assets.

Due to its sovereign power to tax and borrow, and the country’s wide economic base, the government has unique access to financial resources through generating tax revenues and issuing federal debt securities. This provides the government with the ability to meet present obligations and those that are anticipated from future operations, and are not reflected in net position.

The net position is the residual difference between assets and liabilities and is the cumulative results of operations since inception. For detailed components that comprise the net position, refer to the section “Statement of Operations and Changes in Net Position.”

United States Government
Balance Sheets
as of September 30, 2020, and 2019

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