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…
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…
My inspirations for this post are the maiden speech of the SEC’s new chief accountant James Schnurr, and the joy of paying only $2.02/gallon at the pump. As for Mr. Schnurr, I plan to dissect his remarks more fully in…
Pick any class of upper-level accounting students, and give them a few cases of supplier/customer relationships for which “gross versus net presentation” of revenues is an issue, and I’ll wager that the class will come to a consensus on the presentation…
Do you remember the Big Four mantra that IFRS adoption in the U.S. was “inevitable”? Today, thankfully, the operative word is “dead.” Even former SEC chair, Christopher Cox, whose brainchild was the IFRS adoption Roadmap, now comes to “bury IFRS." But…
In my previous post, I expressed my opposition to the FASB's proposal for replacing the LOCOM rule for inventory with “lower of cost or net realizable value." I stated that the extant U.S. GAAP on LOCOM embodied a principle of…