Warren Buffett and “look-through” earnings Berkshire Hathaway, the investment holding company of Warren Buffett, reports its “less than 20% ownership” investments according to generally accepted accounting principles.

However, it also provides additional disclosures that it terms “look-through” earnings.

Warren Buffett states, Many of these companies (in the less than 20%-owned category) pay out relatively small proportions of their earnings in dividends. This means that only a small proportion of their earning power is recorded in our own current operating earnings. But, while our reported operating earnings reflect only the dividends received from such companies, our economic well-being is determined by their earnings, not their dividends.

The value to Berkshire Hathaway of retained earnings (of our investees) is not determined by whether we own 100%, 50%, 20%, or 1% of the businesses in which they reside.... Our perspective on such “forgotten-but-not-gone” earnings is simple: the way they are accounted for is of no importance, but their ownership and subsequent utilization is allimportant. We care not whether the auditors hear a tree fall in the forest; we do care who owns the tree and what’s next done with it.

I believe the best way to think about our earnings is in terms of “look-through” results, calculated as follows: Take

$250 million, which is roughly our share of the operating earnings retained by our investees (<20% ownership holdings); subtract... incremental taxes we would have owed had that $250 million been paid to us in dividends; then add the remainder, $220 million, to our reported earnings of $371 million. Thus, our “look-through” earnings were about $590 million.

Source: Warren Buffett, The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, edited by Lawrence A. Cunningham, pp. 180–183 (excerpted).

1. What are look-through earnings?

2. Why does Warren Buffett favor look-through earnings?