Instead of Converging Two Sacks of Mush, Let’s Reimagine What Accounting Could Be
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…
What is the FASB’s Simplification Initiative, Really?
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…
Proposed ASU EITF 2015-15B: Lipstick for a Pig of a Revenue Presentation Standard
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”…
The Grim Political Realities of the Impending Revenue Recognition Standard
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…
ASU 2015-03: The Latest Simplification to GAAP That’s Not
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…
The FASB’s New “Going Concern” Reporting Rules: A Solution in Search of a Problem
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…
Sweet Next-to-Nothings from the SEC’s Chief Accountant
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…
Oil Stocks are Taking a Beating — But in 10-K’s, Not So Much
I have already warned you that if high quality financial statements from oil and gas companies are what you are looking for this year, you won’t find much of that in 2014 annual reports. In this post, I’m going to…