The insurance industry deals in the unknown. Insurance companies provide their customers with protection from future events—some foreseeable, many unexpected. They employ actuaries who design…
In Brief The need for accounting standards for government entities has been long recognized, but the road to establishing the right body to set such…
How should contingent consideration, also known as earnouts, be valued? A dozen specialists will likely give a dozen different answers. Ten years after FASB released…
The June 2016 debate between Edward Weinstein and Stanley Goldstein about the role of the CPAs in sustainability accounting (“Sustainability—Not GAAP Measurement,” http://bit.ly/2fyI9Pj) presented two views;…
FASB News Federal Reserve Urges Bankers to Move Quickly Implementing Credit Loss Standard Joanne Wakim, the Federal Reserve’s chief accountant, urged banks to not waste…
More Accounting Changes
Financial Reporting through the Age of Crisis and Globalization
This book is part autobiography and part chronicle of recent events in accounting standards setting. The book follows Herz's role as the chair of FASB…
The Authors Respond
Response to Howard Levy
We would like to thank Howard Levy for his complimentary and complementary letter on our article. We initially included most of the “plain paper” financial…
As the author of “Putting the Decades-Long ‘Plain Paper’ Debate to Rest: Will SSARS 21 be the Final Resolution?” (The CPA Journal, November 2015), I…
Attestation Guide For Sustainability Information Published
FASB News/IASB News/AICPA News
FASB News Meeting with Japanese Board Addresses Wide Range of Issues FASB used its most recent meeting with the Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ),…
Since 2013, FASB has regularly given private companies extra time to adopt new accounting standards. Now the board may be ready to extend a similar…
The State of FASB’s Simplification Initiative
Toward a Simpler GAAP
In Brief In recent years, FASB has made a priority of removing unnecessary complexity from FASB's accounting standards. The author gives a detailed accounting of…
The third panel of the 15th Annual Financial Reporting Conference covered recent financial reporting developments in the private sector. Topics included the new revenue recognition…
Accounting for Leases
The New Standard
The second panel of the 15th Annual Financial Reporting Conference covered FASB's new standard on accounting for leases. The standard, which is 500 pages long,…
Tax & Accounting Update is provided by Thomson Reuters and based on material published on Checkpoint, its online news and research platform. The Update is…
With its issuance of Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2014-15, Presentation of Financial Statements—Going Concern (Subtopic 205-40): Disclosure of Uncertainties about an Entity's Ability to Continue as…
Changes to Going Concern Disclosures
Accounting Guidance Shifts Responsibilities to Management
Historically, auditors of financial statements have been charged with the assessment of an entity's ability to continue as a going concern (see AU 341, “The…
The Tangle of Intangible Assets and Business Combinations
Related Standards: Past, Present, and Future
In Brief Since January 2014, FASB has issued several significant pronouncements on business combinations and intangible assets; however, the interaction between the two remains complex,…
This month’s issue focuses on the coming year in accounting and taxation, as CPAs take stock of recent changes and prepare for their actual implementation.…