Use the Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) database to determine the precise reference that represents the authoritative guidance in US GAAP. To illustrate, the support for principles to determine if a transfer of receivables should be accounted for as a sales or as a secured borrowing would be found in ASC section 860-10-40-3.
Your Company is in the coal mining business, which often requires asset retirement obligations (ARO) for costs related to retiring the long-lived asset in the future. You are doing the initial accounting for a new coal mine, and you are told that fair value of the retirement obligation is reasonably estimated. Identify the authoritative guidance that describes the accounting for this ARO.