The concept of a "controlling financial interest" is when one entity or
company holds majority ownership in a subsidiary's common stock.
This can also mean that the "controlling" entity/company has the
majority voting interest. Pushdown accounting is when a company
acquires another and chooses to revalue the subsidiary's assets and
liabilities to their fair value. The acquiring company must choose
pushdown accounting at the time that they record the acquisition in
their books. I think the most important consideration for pushdown
accounting is how the acquiring company plans to use the acquired
company's financial statements. If the subsidiary's financial
statements will remain separate and the acquiring company does not
intend to use those records to analyze trends, it may be a good
election.
