Year-to-date

Year-to-date is a period, starting on a date which depends upon the country and the purpose, which is not more than one calendar year ago and ending on the day in question (e.g., today). Dates on which a year is deemed to start for this purpose include [[[January 1]] (calendar year), July 1, 1 April (UK corporation tax and government financial statements), and 6 April (UK fiscal year for personal tax and benefits). Year-to-date is used in many contexts, mainly for recording results of an activity in the time between a date (exclusive, since this day may not yet be "complete") and the beginning of either the calendar or fiscal year.

In the context of finance, YTD is often provided in financial statements detailing the performance of a business entity. Providing current YTD results, as well as YTD results for one or more past years as of the same date, allows owners, managers, investors, and other stakeholders to compare the company's current performance to that of past periods. Employees' income tax may be based on total earnings in the tax year to date.

YTD describes the return so far this year. For example: the year to date (ytd) return for the stock is 8%. This means from 1st of January of current year to date, stock has appreciated by 8%.

Another example: the year to date (ytd) rental income of a property (whose Fiscal Year End is 3/31/09) is $1000.00 as of 06/30/08. This means that the property brought in $1000.00 of rental income during the period 04/01/08 through 06/30/08 (= the ytd period for the property).

Comparing YTD measures can be misleading if not much of the year has occurred, or the date is not clear. YTD measures are more sensitive to early changes than late changes. Contrast YTD with the concept of 12-months-ending (or Year-ending), which are more resistant to seasonal influences.

Example: to calculate Year-To-Date Invoicing for a company, invoice totals for each previous month of the current year are added to total invoices for the current month to date.

Example: YTD Invoicing report for May 3rd
 
  January Invoices-----$ 35,000
  February Invoices----  40,000
  March Invoices-------  25,000
  April Invoices-------  45,000
  May Invoices---------   5,000
                        _______
                               
  YTD Invoices          150,000

Alternate method:

  1st Quarter Invoices-----$ 100,000
  April Invoices-----------   45,000
  May Invoices-------------    5,000
                             _______
                               
  YTD Invoices               150,000

If an employee is taxed based on pay during the year to date, the total tax due as of the end of week 33 of the tax year is calculated on total pay from the beginning of week 1 until the end of week 33; tax payable for that week will be this total tax minus tax already paid.

See also

• Quarter-To-Date (QTD)
• Month-To-Date (MTD)
• Year-ending
• Moving Annual Total (MAT)

External links

• Investopedia Definition
• Investorwords Definition

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