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Accounting Research Manager(TM)
Weekly Summary of Developments
December 17-21, 2007
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Accounting Research Manager subscriber,
The Accounting Research Manager database now contains this week's weekly summary of developments. Click the link below to access and print the fully-formatted Weekly Summary:
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If you do not have immediate Internet access to the Accounting Research Manager database, below is the text of this week's Weekly Summary.
Accounting and SEC Headlines
Share-Based Payment -- SEC Issues Revised Guidance
Small Business Reporting -- SEC Issues Smaller Company Reporting Relief
Income Taxes and FIN 48 -- Proposed FASB Staff Position Issued
Effective Date of FASB Statement No. 157 -- Proposed FASB Staff Position Issued
Governance Issues -- FAF Proposes Governance Changes to the FASB and GASB
Eligibility Requirements -- Amendments to Eligibility Requirements for Forms S-3 and F-3
Proposed Rule -- SEC Proposes Amendments to Form S-11
EITF Matters -- November 29, 2007 Meeting Minutes Issued
Financial Assets and Liabilities -- Interpretations of FASB Statement No. 140 Updated
Derivatives and Hedging -- Interpretations of FASB Statement No. 133 Updated
EITF Consensuses -- FASB Discusses Ratification of EITF Consensuses and Other Matters at December 12, 2007 Meeting
Income Taxes -- FASB Discusses its Income Taxes Project and Other Matters at December 5, 2007 Meeting
IASB Update -- IASB Discusses Conceptual Framework and Other Matters at Its December 11-14, 2007 Meeting
International Reporting -- IASB Issues Quarterly Newsletter Detailing Overall Agenda and Other Matters
Auditing and Internal Controls Headlines
Internal Control Reporting by Governments -- GAO Issues Updated Guidance
Government Headlines
Governance Issues -- FAF Proposes Governance Changes to the FASB and GASB
Internal Control Reporting by Governments -- GAO Issues Updated Guidance
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ACCOUNTING AND SEC HEADLINES:
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Share-Based Payment -- SEC Issues Revised Guidance
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On December 21, 2007, the SEC staff issued Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 110, which amends and replaces Question 6 of Section D2 of SAB Topic 14, "Share-Based Payment-Certain Assumptions Used in Valuation Methods-Expected Term." In this release, the SEC staff document its views regarding the use of a "simplified" method in developing an estimate of expected term of "plain vanilla" share options in accordance with FASB Statement No. 123 (Revised 2004), Share-Based Payment. The guidance in this release is effective January 1, 2008.
Small Business Reporting -- SEC Issues Smaller Company Reporting Relief
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The SEC has published amendments to its disclosure and reporting requirements under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This release formalizes the decisions made by the SEC on November 15, 2007 and that were documented in our hot topic issued on that day:For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com. Among the changes included in these amendments are the following:
-Replacement of the current "small business issuer" category with a new expanded category of "smaller reporting companies" having less than $75 million in public equity float or, if a company does not have a calculable public equity float, having revenues of less than $50 million in the last fiscal year;
-Expanded eligibility for the SEC's scaled disclosure and reporting requirements for smaller companies by allowing the newly defined category of smaller reporting companies to use the scaled disclosure requirements;
-Transfer of the 12 nonfinancial scaled disclosure items from Regulation S-B into Regulation S-K (the scaled disclosure requirements will only be available to smaller reporting companies); and
-Permission to allow smaller reporting companies to elect to comply with scaled financial disclosure and nonfinancial disclosure on an item-by-item or "a la carte" basis.
The rule is effective 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
Income Taxes and FIN 48 -- Proposed FASB Staff Position Issued
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The FASB has issued proposed FASB Staff Position (FSP) FIN 48-b, "Effective Date of FASB Interpretation No. 48 for Nonpublic Enterprises."
This FSP would delay the effective date of FASB Interpretation (FIN) No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes, for nonpublic enterprises, as defined, including nonpublic not-for-profit organizations. The effective date would be delayed by one year to fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2007. Nonpublic enterprises that adopted the provisions of FIN 48 prior to the issuance of this FSP are not eligible for the deferral.
Comments on this proposed FSP are due January 18, 2008.
Effective Date of FASB Statement No. 157 -- Proposed FASB Staff Position Issued
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The FASB issued proposed FASB Staff Position (FSP) FAS 157-b, "Effective Date of FASB Statement No. 157."
This FSP would delay the effective date of FASB Statement No. 157, Fair Value Measurements, for all nonfinancial assets and nonfinancial liabilities, except those that are recognized or disclosed at fair value in the financial statements on a recurring basis (at least annually). The effective date would be delayed by one year to fiscal years beginning after November 15, 2008 and interim periods within those fiscal years. This FSP does not apply to entities that have already issued financial statements reflecting adoption of Statement 157 in its entirety.
Comments on the proposed FSP are due January 16, 2008.
Governance Issues -- FAF Proposes Governance Changes to the FASB and GASB
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
We have prepared a hot topic that describes that the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), which has oversight responsibility for both the FASB and the GASB, is proposing changes to how both boards operate. For example, the FAF is proposing that the FASB be reduced in size from seven to five voting members but retaining the simple majority vote concept to issue a new standard. The FAF is also proposing a stable funding source for the GASB. The proposal would also give the chairs of both boards decision making authority to set their respective agendas. See our hot topic for more details and access to the proposal.
Comments on this proposal are due February 10, 2008.
Eligibility Requirements -- Amendments to Eligibility Requirements for Forms S-3 and F-3
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The SEC has published amendments to the eligibility requirements for primary securities offerings on Forms S-3 and F-3. This release allows certain domestic and foreign private issuers to conduct primary securities offerings on Forms S-3 and F-3 regardless of public float size or rating of debt being offered, as long as they satisfy the other eligibility conditions of the respective form, have a class of common equity securities listed and registered on a national securities exchange, and the issuers do not sell more than the equivalent of one-third of their public float in primary offerings over any period of 12 calendar months.
The rule is effective 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
Proposed Rule -- SEC Proposes Amendments to Form S-11
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The SEC is proposing amendments to Form S-11, a registration statement used by real estate entities to register offerings under the Securities Act of 1933. The amendments would permit an entity that has filed at least one annual report and that is current in its reporting obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to incorporate by reference into Form S-11 information from its previously filed Exchange Act reports and documents. The proposed amendments are identical to amendments to Forms S-1 and F-1 previously adopted by the Commission and effective as of December 1, 2005.
Comments on this SEC proposal are due 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
EITF Matters -- November 29, 2007 Meeting Minutes Issued
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The final minutes of the November 29, 2007 EITF meeting have been issued. The minutes document the meeting results as previously described in our hot topic dated December 13, 2007:For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com.
Financial Assets and Liabilities -- Interpretations of FASB Statement No. 140 Updated
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We have revised and updated the interpretations in our publication, Financial Assets and Liabilities - Sales, Transfers, and Extinguishments: Interpretations of FASB Statement 140. Among the changes, we updated Interpretation 11-1a, "Assumptions Used to Estimate Fair Values," and Appendix II, "Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities, Including Special-Purpose Entities," to note specifically that on October 3, 2007, the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) issued Alert 2007-51, detailing that three white papers have been issued in response to recent lack of liquidity in credit markets.
In addition, we have updated the "Recent Developments" section of this publication to reflect recent deliberations by the FASB on a variety of relevant projects.
See our Literature Update for complete details.
Derivatives and Hedging -- Interpretations of FASB Statement No. 133 Updated
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
We have updated our publication, Derivatives and Hedging - Interpretations of FASB Statement 133. We have updated Interpretation 6-5a, "SEC Staff Guidance on Written Loan Commitments," to reflect the SEC staff's view that the fair value of loan commitments should consider the expected future cash flows related to the associated servicing of the loan. This view was addressed in SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) Topic 5DD, "Written Loan Commitments Recorded at Fair Value through Earnings" (SAB 109), issued November 5, 2007.
We have also updated the section entitled, "Recent Developments," for recent deliberations at the FASB on a variety of relevant projects.
See our Literature Update for complete details of this update.
EITF Consensuses -- FASB Discusses Ratification of EITF Consensuses and Other Matters at December 12, 2007 Meeting
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As reported in its "Action Alert" publication, the FASB met on December 12, 2007, and ratified the actions of the EITF.
Income Taxes -- FASB Discusses its Income Taxes Project and Other Matters at December 5, 2007 Meeting
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As reported in its "Action Alert" publication, the FASB met on December 5, 2007, and addressed the following projects or topics:
-Income taxes
-Derivative disclosures
IASB Update -- IASB Discusses Conceptual Framework and Other Matters at Its December 11-14, 2007 Meeting
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As reported in its "IASB Update" publication, the IASB met on December 11-14, 2007, and discussed the following projects or topics:
-Agenda Proposals
-Technical Plan
-Annual Improvements Process
-Fair Value Measurements
-Revenue Recognition
-IAS 37 redeliberations
-Conceptual Framework
-Preface to International Financial Reporting Standards
-Post-employment Benefits
-IFRS 5 Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations
-Derecognizing Assets and Liabilities
-Puttable Financial Instruments and Obligations arising on Liquidation
-Liabilities and Equity
International Reporting -- IASB Issues Quarterly Newsletter Detailing Overall Agenda and Other Matters
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has issued the fourth quarter 2007 edition of its "Insight" newsletter. This edition includes the following topics:
-New Chairman for the IASC Foundation
-Enhancing governance
-2007 Global Accountability Report
-The EU two years after the adoption of IFRSs
-Asia turning to IFRSs
-Japan - A view on convergence
-IFRSs going global
-South Africa - A view on adoption
-IFRSs permitted in the US
-Interview with Robert Herz
-World Standard-setters meeting in London
-Investors' voice getting heard
-Reporting in the 21st century
-Business Combinations (Phase II)
-IASB work plan
-Let's talk - Financial Statement Presentation
-Open for comment
-FEI Hall of Fame
-Staff changes
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AUDITING AND INTERNAL CONTROLS HEADLINES:
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Internal Control Reporting by Governments -- GAO Issues Updated Guidance
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The GAO has updated its "Guidance on Complying with Government Auditing Standards Reporting Requirements for the Report on Internal Control for Audits of Certain Entities Subject to the Requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and Government Auditing Standards." The principal change made in this update is to refer users to the guidance in PCAOB Auditing Standard (A/S) No. 5, An Audit of Internal Control over Financial Reporting That Is Integrated with an Audit of Financial Statements, rather than that contained in A/S 2 similarly titled. This guidance is relevant to entities that are required to have an audit conducted in accordance with standards issued by the PCAOB, as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and the Comptroller General, as contained in Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS).
Some of the documents listed above may not be accessible under your current subscription. For information about upgrading your subscription to include additional content, click here:
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GOVERNMENT HEADLINES:
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Governance Issues -- FAF Proposes Governance Changes to the FASB and GASB
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As discussed above in our Accounting and SEC Summaries, we have prepared a hot topic that describes that the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), which has oversight responsibility for both the FASB and the GASB, is proposing changes to how both boards operate. For example, the FAF is proposing that the FASB be reduced in size from seven to five voting members but retaining the simple majority vote concept to issue a new standard. The FAF is also proposing a stable funding source for the GASB. The proposal would also give the chairs of both boards decision making authority to set their respective agendas. See our hot topic for more details and access to the proposal.
Comments on this proposal are due February 10, 2008.
Internal Control Reporting by Governments -- GAO Issues Updated Guidance
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As discussed above in our Auditing and Internal Controls Summaries, the GAO has updated its "Guidance on Complying with Government Auditing Standards Reporting Requirements for the Report on Internal Control for Audits of Certain Entities Subject to the Requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and Government Auditing Standards." The principal change made in this update is to refer users to the guidance in PCAOB Auditing Standard (A/S) No. 5, An Audit of Internal Control over Financial Reporting That Is Integrated with an Audit of Financial Statements, rather than that contained in A/S 2 similarly titled. This guidance is relevant to entities that are required to have an audit conducted in accordance with standards issued by the PCAOB, as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and the Comptroller General, as contained in Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS).
Some of the documents listed above may not be accessible under your current subscription. For information about upgrading your subscription to include additional content, click here:
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com