COMPREHENSIVE TAX ALLOCATION

An accounting term that describes a form of "interperiod" tax allocation, a method of income analysis. It signifies a means of quantifying the net effect of taxation upon all book income transactions within a given period, such as a fiscal year, measuring after-tax income.

Comprehensive tax allocation does not take into account whether the period being analyzed is entirely within a single calendar or fiscal tax year. For example, if a company wanted to know what its after-tax income was for a certain period, such as from August of one year to March of the following year, then comprehensive tax allocation would be used to see what the effects of taxation are on the book income received during that period.