What is "fiscal year"

Year \Year\, n. [OE. yer, yeer, [yogh]er, AS. ge['a]r; akin to OFries. i?r, g?r, D. jaar, OHG. j[=a]r, G. jahr, Icel. [=a]r, Dan. aar, Sw. [*a]r, Goth. j?r, Gr. ? a season of the year, springtime, a part of the day, an hour, ? a year, Zend y[=a]re year. [root]4, 279. Cf. Hour, Yore.]

1. The time of the apparent revolution of the sun trough the ecliptic; the period occupied by the earth in making its revolution around the sun, called the astronomical year; also, a period more or less nearly agreeing with this, adopted by various nations as a measure of time, and called the civil year; as, the common lunar year of 354 days, still in use among the Mohammedans; the year of 360 days, etc. In common usage, the year consists of 365 days, and every fourth year (called bissextile, or leap year) of 366 days, a day being added to February on that year, on account of the excess above 365 days (see Bissextile).

   Of twenty year of age he was, I guess.
   --Chaucer.

   Note: The civil, or legal, year, in England, formerly commenced on the 25th of March. This practice continued throughout the British dominions till the year 175

2. 2. The time in which any planet completes a revolution about the sun; as, the year of Jupiter or of Saturn.

3. pl. Age, or old age; as, a man in years.
   --Shak.

   Anomalistic year, the time of the earth's revolution from perihelion to perihelion again, which is 365 days, 6 hours, 13 minutes, and 48 seconds.

   A year's mind (Eccl.), a commemoration of a deceased person, as by a Mass, a year after his death. Cf. A month's mind, under Month.

   Bissextile year. See Bissextile.

   Canicular year. See under Canicular.

   Civil year, the year adopted by any nation for the computation of time.

   Common lunar year, the period of 12 lunar months, or 354 days.

   Common year, each year of 365 days, as distinguished from leap year.

   Embolismic year, or Intercalary lunar year, the period of 13 lunar months, or 384 days.

   Fiscal year (Com.), the year by which accounts are reckoned, or the year between one annual time of settlement, or balancing of accounts, and another.

   Great year. See Platonic year, under Platonic.

   Gregorian year, Julian year. See under Gregorian, and Julian.

   Leap year. See Leap year, in the Vocabulary.

   Lunar astronomical year, the period of 12 lunar synodical months, or 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, 36 seconds.

   Lunisolar year. See under Lunisolar.

   Periodical year. See Anomalistic year, above.

   Platonic year, Sabbatical year. See under Platonic, and Sabbatical.

   Sidereal year, the time in which the sun, departing from any fixed star, returns to the same. This is 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 9.3 seconds.

   Tropical year. See under Tropical.

   Year and a day (O. Eng. Law), a time to be allowed for an act or an event, in order that an entire year might be secured beyond all question.
   --Abbott.

   Year of grace, any year of the Christian era; Anno Domini; A. D. or a. d.

alt. (context accounting English) An accounting period of one year, not necessarily coinciding with the calendar year. n. (context accounting English) An accounting period of one year, not necessarily coinciding with the calendar year.

n. any accounting period of 12 months [syn: financial year]

A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is a period used for calculating annual ("yearly") financial statements in businesses and other organizations all over the world. In many jurisdictions, regulatory laws regarding accounting and taxation require such reports once per twelve months, but do not require that the period reported on constitutes a calendar year (that is, 1 January to 31 December). Fiscal years vary between businesses and countries. The "fiscal year" may also refer to the year used for income tax reporting.

The fiscal year end (FYE) is the date that marks the end of the fiscal year. Some companies choose to end their fiscal year such that it ends on the same day of the week each year, e.g. the day that is closest to a particular date (for example, the Friday closest to 31 December). Under such a system, some fiscal years will have 52 weeks and others 53 weeks. A major corporation that has adopted this approach is Cisco Systems.

Nevertheless, the fiscal year is identical to the calendar year for about 65% of publicly traded companies in the United States and for a majority of large corporations in the UK and elsewhere (with notable exceptions Australia, New Zealand and Japan).

Many universities have a fiscal year which ends during the summer, both to align the fiscal year with the school year (and, in some cases involving public universities, with the state government's fiscal year), and because the school is normally less busy during the summer months. In the northern hemisphere this is July in one year to June in the next year. In the southern hemisphere this is January to December of a single calendar year.

Some media/communication based organizations use a broadcast calendar as the basis for their fiscal year.

The fiscal year is usually denoted by the year in which it ends, so United States of America federal government spending incurred on 14 November would belong to fiscal year , operating on a fiscal calendar of October–September.

The NFL uses the term "league year," which in effect forms the league's fiscal year. By rule, the fiscal year begins at 4 PM EDT on 10 March of each calendar year. All financial reports are based on each fiscal year. However, the fiscal year is denoted in the NFL by the year where it starts, not where it ends, unlike most designations.