Note: Reference cited below, FAS130, remains the most current accounting literature in the United States on this topic. In 1997 the United States Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Statement on Financial Accounting Standards No. 130 entitled "Reporting Comprehensive Income". This statement required all income statement items to be reported either as a regular item in the income statement or a special item as other comprehensive income. It is commonly referred to as FAS130. The International Accounting Standards Board issued the International Accounting Standard 1 with a slightly different terminology but an conceptually identical meaning. Comprehensive income Comprehensive income (IAS 1: "Total Comprehensive Income") is the total non-owner change in equity for a reporting period. This change encompasses all changes in equity other than transactions from owners and distributions to owners. Most of these changes appear in the income statement. A few special types of gains and losses are not shown in the income statement but as special items in shareholder equity section of the balance sheet. Since these comprehensive income items are not closed to retained earnings each period they accumulate as shareholder equity items and thus are entitled "Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income" and is sometimes referred to as "AOCI". Accumulated other comprehensive income is a subsection in equity where "other comprehensive income" is accumulated (summed or "aggregated"). The balance of AOCI is presented in the Equity section of the Balance Sheet as is the Retained Earnings balance, which aggregates past and current Earnings, and past and current Dividends. Other comprehensive income Other comprehensive income is the difference between net income as in the income statement (profit or loss Account) and comprehensive income, and represents the certain gains and losses of the enterprise not recognized in the P&L Account. It is commonly referred to as "OCI" although the word comprehensive has no meaning as can be seen from the definitory equation. OCI when translated into another language and back into English means "other income" only. In practice, it comprises the following items: Unrealized gains and losses on available for sale securities [IAS 39/ "FAS 115" – "Accounting for Certain Investments in Debt Securities"] Gains and losses on derivatives held as cash flow hedges (only for effective portions) [IAS 39/ "FAS 133" – "Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities"] Gains and losses resulting from translating the financial statements of foreign subsidiaries (from foreign currency to the presentation currency) [IAS 21/