Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services

6. Other variables 
4.67.  Although not included as priority items, there are 
other FATS variables of significance, perhaps for certain 
countries of equal or greater importance than some of 
those previously discussed.  As is the case for the 
priority items, comparisons with the total economy and 
with specific sectors can be effected and used for 
assessing the impact of foreign-controlled enterprises on 
home and host economies. 
4.68.  Among such variables are the following, which 
are already collected by some countries (definitions are 
drawn from the 1993 SNA, which may be consulted for 
additional details): 
(a)  Assets:  entities over which ownership rights are 
enforced and from which economic benefits may be 
derived by their owners by holding or using them, 
including both financial assets and non-financial assets, 
whether produced or non-produced; 
(b)  Compensation of employees: the total 
remuneration, in cash or in kind, payable by an 
enterprise to an employee in return for work done by the 
employee during the accounting period; 
(c)  Net worth:  the difference between the value of 
all assets––produced, non-produced, and financial––and 
all liabilities; 
(d)  Net operating surplus:  measured as value added 
(gross), less compensation of employees, consumption 
of fixed capital and taxes on production, plus subsidies 
receivable; 
(e)  Gross fixed capital formation:  measured by the 
total value of a producer’s acquisitions, less disposals, of 
fixed assets during the accounting period, plus certain 
additions to the value of non-produced assets realized by 
productive activity (fixed assets are defined as produced 
assets that are themselves used repeatedly or 
continuously in processes of production for more than 
one year); 
(f)  Taxes on income:  these consist of corporate 
income taxes, corporate profit taxes, corporate surtaxes 
etc. as well as taxes that accrue to owners of 
unincorporated enterprises as a result of the income of 
those enterprises.  Taxes on income include only taxes in 
the host country of the affiliate and not any taxes paid by 
the parent in the home country as a result of income 
earned or distributed by the affiliate.  Taxes on income 
are usually assessed on the total income of corporations 
from all sources and not simply on profits generated by 
production; 
(g)  Research and development expenditures: 
 
expenditures for activities undertaken for the purpose of 
discovering or developing new products (goods and 
services), including improved versions or qualities of 
existing products, or discovering or developing new or 
more efficient processes of production.