13:21 Mar 6 

If it's "passivischer Unterschiedsbetrag" just by itself, i.e. without the "aus der Vermögensverrechnung" bit, then "negative goodwill" will probably be absolutely right (though "negative consolidation difference" is generally the more technically correct term). Why don't you send me the full details by private e-mail, and generally get back in touch?

12:51 Mar 6 

If anyone is still listening - i have exactly this concept in a translation, but there is not an excess to be recognized as an asset, but rather an excess of the liabilities, resulting in the above "passivischer Unterschiedsbetrag". I have found this elsewhere as "negative goodwill", but am dubious. What say you?
(p.s. hi Robin if you're there, been a while!)

04:35 Jun 12, 2011 

Many thanks again for your note. I fully agree that the English term makes more sense - in fact English terms in general do. I would be most interested in learning how to use ABRA correctly - any assistance here is most welcome. I may have to allocated the Kudoz points to Bruce (contains your "agree") as I cannot allocate to references (as excellent as they are) but only to actual answers. Please consider yourself "pointed"! You have been a real help for my future financial translations. Enjoy your visit to Boston and please thank Susan too when you see here there. Greetings from Barberton South Africa....

10:07 Jun 11, 2011 

A lot of accounting terminology is relatively straightforward once you've identified which accounting standards are involved. But there are still a lot of terms that are particularly opaque in German, and sometimes the standard English translation is equally unintuitive. In your case, though, I think that the English translation is actually far more comprehensible to the non-expert reader than the original German term, which really looks like a compromise term decided by a committee (which it was in essence). The same applies to a number of other BilMoG-related terms, such as "Einfrierungsmethode" and "Durchbuchungsmethode", both of which relate to how to account for "Bewertungseinheiten" (i.e. hedges). The real risk in such cases is that mistranslations abound (often from quite authoritative sources), and the non-expert translator ends up being faced with a range of lousy translations to choose from. That's why the German GAAP XBRL taxonomy that can be viewed at ABRA.com is so useful and should really be the first port of call for any German GAAP terminology research.

08:11 Jun 11, 2011 

Thank you very much, Robin. Your help in this is really appreciated. Accounting terms can be soooo tricky!

20:00 Jun 10, 2011 

Camilla,
This all refers to section 246(2) sent. 2 & 3 of the HGB:
"Vermögensgegenstände, die dem Zugriff aller übrigen Gläubiger entzogen sind und ausschließlich der Erfüllung von Schulden aus Altersversorgungsverpflichtungen oder vergleichbaren langfristig fälligen Verpflichtungen dienen, sind mit diesen Schulden zu verrechnen; entsprechend ist mit den zugehörigen Aufwendungen und Erträgen aus der Abzinsung und aus dem zu verrechnenden Vermögen zu verfahren. Übersteigt der beizulegende Zeitwert der Vermögensgegenstände den Betrag der Schulden, ist der übersteigende Betrag unter einem gesonderten Posten zu aktivieren."

And here's the English translation that will be published later this year:
"Assets that are exempt from attachment by all other creditors and that serve exclusively to settle liabilities from post-employment benefit obligations or similar long-term liabilities shall be offset against such liabilities; the related income and expenses from discounting and from the assets to be offset shall also be offset. Any excess of the fair value of the assets over the amount of the liabilities shall be recognised as an asset and presented under a separate heading."