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Accounting Research Manager(TM)
Weekly Summary of Developments
February 28 - March 4, 2011
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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

Income Taxes -- Interpretation Updated
Revenue Recognition -- FASB and IASB Discuss Revenue Recognition and Other Matters
IFRS for SMEs -- Draft Q&A and Other Matters Discussed

Auditing and Internal Controls Headlines

Ethics -- AICPA Issues Proposal


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ACCOUNTING AND SEC HEADLINES:
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Income Taxes -- Interpretation Updated
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We have updated our publication, Accounting for Income Taxes - Interpretations of U.S. GAAP, to reflect recent examples of income tax disclosures from Form 10-Ks applicable to the years ended on or about December 31, 2010. In addition, we have updated the “Recent Developments” section for various matters.

See our Literature Update for complete details.

Revenue Recognition -- FASB and IASB Discuss Revenue Recognition and Other Matters
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As reported in its "Summary of Board Decisions" publication, the FASB and IASB (the Boards) met on March 1-2, 2011, and discussed the following topics:

-Revenue recognition;
-Leases;
-Insurance contracts;
-Financial statement presentation; and
-Effective dates and transition methods.

In connection with the revenue recognition project, the Boards continued their previous discussion on how an entity would test a contract to determine whether it is onerous and tentatively decided that the onerous test should apply to all contracts, including those that are intentionally priced at a loss in expectation of profits to be generated on subsequent contracts with the customer. The Boards also tentatively affirmed the proposal in the Exposure Draft, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, that the costs to be included in the onerous test and in measuring an onerous liability should be the costs that relate directly to satisfying the remaining performance obligations.

In connection with the leases project, the Boards discussed the application of the right-of-use model to all lease arrangements and discussed the scope of the leases standard. The Boards made the following decisions:

-Affirmed the decision to apply a right-of-use model to all lease arrangements.
-Tentatively decided that leases of intangibles are not required to be accounted for in accordance with the leases standard.
-Affirmed the decision that the following will be within the scope of any final guidance on leases: (a) right-of-use assets in a sublease; (b) leases of non-core assets; and (c) long-term leases of land.
-Affirmed the decision that the following will not be within the scope of any final guidance on leases: (a) leases for the right to explore for or use minerals, oil, natural gas and similar non-regenerative resources; (b) under U.S. GAAP only, leases of biological assets including timber; and (c) under IFRS only, leases of service concession arrangements within the scope of IFRIC 12, Service Concession Arrangements.

The Boards also continued their discussions on insurance contracts and tentatively decided:

-To affirm that the discount rate used to measure all insurance contracts should be a current rate that is updated each reporting period;
-To require discounting for all non-life long-tail claims;
-Discounting of insurance liabilities should not be required when the effect of discounting would be immaterial;
-To affirm the proposed guidance to exclude from the scope of the guidance some fixed-fee service contracts that have as their primary purpose the provision of services; and
-To affirm all of the other scope exceptions that were previously proposed by the Boards.

In addition, the FASB met separately on March 2, 2011, and discussed the accounting for financial instruments (classification and measurement).

IFRS for SMEs -- Draft Q&A and Other Matters Discussed
For detail, please contact info@hkcmcpa.us


The IASB staff has issued its periodic "IFRS for SMEs Update" publication that is a summary of news relating to the International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium-Sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs). This update includes discussion of the following topics:

-SME Implementation Group publishes first draft Q&A;
-Updated IFRS for SMEs training slides;
-Upcoming ‘train the trainers’ workshops;
-News about adoptions of the IFRS for SMEs; and
-Obtaining IFRS for SMEs materials.

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AUDITING AND INTERNAL CONTROLS HEADLINES:
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Ethics -- AICPA Issues Proposal
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The Professional Ethics Executive Committee of the AICPA has issued an exposure draft, Omnibus Proposal of Professional Ethics Division Interpretations and Rulings. This omnibus exposure draft includes more than 30 proposed new, revised, and deleted interpretations. It also includes ethics rulings and definitions such as: (a) proposed new Interpretation No. 101-18, "Application of the Independence Rules to Affiliates," under Rule 101, Independence; and (b) a proposed new definition, "Confidential Client Information," under ET section 92, Definitions.

Comments on the omnibus exposure draft are due by May 31, 2011.

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@hkcmcpa.us