There are two types of people in the world: those who like to divide people into two types, and those who don't. Too simple? OK, try this one: some people find taxonomies very helpful; and others, not so much. I really like…
As I stated in my post on ASU 2015-03, the accounting for debt issue costs is relatively small potatoes. The point was to illustrate that the FASB’s so-called “simplification initiative” was driven by politics, and that actual simplification might, or…
Comments on the PCAOB's Staff Consultation Paper (SCP), The Auditor’s Use of the Work of Specialists, are due July 31st. This post consists of a draft of my comment letter, and I invite you all to make suggestions before I submit…
Here is a summary of Chief Accountant James Schnurr’s recent remarks regarding IFRS: Despite having been a national office partner at Deloitte, and being closely involved with the firm’s promotion of IFRS, he still needed to spend a considerable amount…
The FASB’s “simplification” proposals are coming fast, and some of them are making me furious. Proposed ASU No. 2015-260, which would roll back important anti-abuse provisions in ASC Topic 805—Business Combinations, is a very nice place to start. A Perfectly…
The FASB has issued Proposed Accounting Standards Update EITF 2015-15B, Recognition of Breakage for Certain Prepaid Stored-Value Cards. If finalized, it would change the way that retail merchants who sell gift cards for redemption at other stores account for “breakage”…
On April 29th, the FASB issued proposed ASU 2015-240, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Deferral of the Effective Date. It is widely expected that the Board will adopt a one year delay in the effective date of its new revenue…
Relative to the big changes that are supposed to be coming from the FASB (leases, revenue recognition, loan impairment), ASU No. 2015-03 on debt issuance costs is very small potatoes. But, if you are looking for an exemplar of the verbal…
It has been, like, forever, that auditors have been issuing going concern warnings in one form or another. Back in the days when historic cost was the sole basis for measurement of assets, and authoritative “impairment” standards for taking write…
I’m not going to beat around the bush here. James Schnurr’s first major speech as the SEC’s Chief Accountant amounted to 3,000 words of next-to-nothing. He achieved this prodigious rhetorical feat with a medley of five disparate topics, such that each…