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Accounting Research
Manager(TM)
Weekly Summary of
Developments
January 28 - February 1, 2008
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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:
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
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 and FIN 48 -- FASB Staff Position Issued
Securities Offerings -- SEC Issues Compliance Guide for
Smaller Companies Using Forms S-3 or F-3
Smaller Company Reporting -- SEC Issues Compliance Guide on
Transitioning to the New Smaller Reporting Company System
AICPA National Conference
on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments -- Newsletter Issued
Financial Statements -- PCAOB Issues Auditing Standard on
Evaluating Consistency and Conforming Amendments
Accounting for Income
Taxes -- FASB Discuss
Deferral of FIN 48 for Nonpublic Entities and Other Matters at January 23, 2008
Meeting
IASB Update -- IASB Discusses Earnings per Share and
Other Matters at Its January 22-24, 2008 Meeting
Auditing and Internal
Controls Headlines
Financial Statements -- PCAOB Issues Auditing Standard on Evaluating
Consistency and Conforming Amendments
Government Headlines
GASB Report Issued -- Challenges Facing the GASB and Other
Matters Discussed
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ACCOUNTING AND SEC HEADLINES:
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Income Taxes and FIN 48 --
FASB Staff Position Issued
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The FASB has issued FASB
Staff Position (FSP) FIN 48-2, "Effective Date of FASB Interpretation No.
48 for Certain Nonpublic Enterprises." The FSP defers the effective date
of FASB Interpretation (FIN) No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income
Taxes, for certain nonpublic enterprises. Specifically, the FSP applies to
nonpublic enterprises unless such entity: (a) is a consolidated entity
of a public enterprise that applies U.S. GAAP or (b) has issued a full
set of U.S. GAAP annual financial statements prior to the issuance of the FSP
using the recognition, measurement, and disclosure requirements in FIN 48. The
FSP defers the effective date of FIN 48 to the annual financial statements for
fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2007.
The FSP is effective February
1, 2008.
Securities Offerings --
SEC Issues Compliance Guide for Smaller Companies Using Forms S-3 or F-3
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The SEC has issued a
compliance guide, Eligibility of Smaller Companies to Use Form S-3 or F-3
for Primary Securities Offerings. The SEC recently amended the eligibility
requirements for primary securities offerings on Forms S-3 and F-3 to allow
smaller public companies, that meet certain
conditions, to use these forms. The guide provides a summary of the general
eligibility requirements for both Forms S-3 and F-3, including how to calculate
"public float" as required by the rules. In addition, the guide
provides links to applicable rules and resources, including: (a) the
final release adopting amendments to Forms S-3 and F-3; (b) Forms S-3
and F-3; and (c) other applicable compliance and disclosure
interpretations.
Smaller Company Reporting
-- SEC Issues Compliance Guide on Transitioning to the New Smaller Reporting
Company System
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The SEC has issued a
compliance guide, Changeover to the SEC's New Smaller Reporting Company
System by Small Business Issuers and Non-Accelerated Filer Companies. The
SEC recently issued new rules expanding the scope of companies permitted to use
scaled disclosure requirements for smaller public companies. In addition, the
new rules eliminated the "small business issuer" classification and
related forms (e.g., Form 10-KSB). Smaller reporting companies may choose to
comply with scaled or non-scaled financial and non-financial item requirements
on an item-by-item basis in any one filing. However, where the smaller
reporting company requirement is more rigorous, the company must meet the more
rigorous standard. In general, the scaled requirements are less rigorous than
the larger company standards. However, under Item 404 of Regulation S-K, the
smaller reporting company rules include an additional "percentage of total
assets" rule for reporting related party transactions that may result in
the scaled disclosure requirements being more rigorous than those for larger
companies.
The guide discusses issues
for registrants adopting the new smaller reporting company system of disclosure.
Specifically, the guide covers the following topics:
-Qualifying as a
"smaller reporting company";
-Compliance date guidance for
current small business issuers;
-Transition to non-SB forms;
-Guidance for newly eligible
smaller reporting companies; and
-Chart of scaled item
requirements in Regulation S-K for smaller reporting companies.
Registrants that historically
filed under Regulation S-B may find the guidance herein particularly useful.
AICPA National Conference
on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments -- Newsletter Issued
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
We have prepared a newsletter
that documents the significant accounting and reporting matters discussed at
the AICPA's SEC and PCAOB Conference held on December
10 -12, 2007. This annual conference addresses common financial reporting
issues that companies should be considering when preparing their financial
statements. We believe this newsletter may be of interest to nonpublic
companies and their auditors as well because a number of general interest
accounting topics were discussed at the conference. Our newsletter compliments
our Literature Update dated December 14, 2007, that was issued immediately
after this conference: For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com.
See our Literature Update for
Complete details.
Financial Statements --
PCAOB Issues Auditing Standard on Evaluating Consistency and Conforming
Amendments
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The PCAOB published Auditing
Standard No. 6, Evaluating Consistency of Financial Statements (AS/6),
and an accompanying set of amendments to its interim auditing standards. AS/6
and the related amendments update the auditor's responsibilities to evaluate
and report on the consistency of a company's financial statements and align the
auditor's responsibilities with FASB Statement No. 154, Accounting Changes
and Error Corrections. In addition, the standard also clarifies that auditor
reports should indicate whether an adjustment to previously issued financial
statements results from a change in accounting principle or the correction of a
misstatement.
The PCAOB also removed the
hierarchy of GAAP from its interim auditing standards. The GAAP hierarchy
identifies the sources of accounting principles and the framework for selecting
principles to be used in preparing financial statements. The PCAOB believes
that the GAAP hierarchy is more appropriately located in the accounting standards
and given the FASB's intention to incorporate the
hierarchy in the accounting standards, it no longer
will be needed in the auditing standards.
Like other rules adopted by
the PCAOB, AS/6 and the amendments are not effective until approved by the SEC.
If approved by the SEC, AS/6 and the amendments will become effective 60 days
after the date of SEC approval.
Accounting for Income
Taxes -- FASB Discuss Deferral of FIN 48 for Nonpublic Entities and Other
Matters at January 23, 2008 Meeting
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As reported in its
"Action Alert" publication, the FASB met on January 23, 2008, and
discussed the following issues:
-Earnings per share;
-Accounting for trading
inventory; and
-Deferral of the effective
date of FASB Interpretation (FIN) No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in
Income Taxes.
The FASB discussed issues
raised in proposed FASB Staff Position (FSP) FIN 48-b, "Effective Date of
FASB Interpretation No. 48 for Nonpublic Entities." Specifically, the FASB
decided:
-An entity is eligible for
this deferral unless it issued a full set of annual financial statements
incorporating the recognition, measurement, and disclosure requirements of FIN
48, prior to the issuance of the final FSP.
-A nonpublic subsidiary of a
public company is not within the scope of the deferral.
-The deferral period will
extend to annual periods beginning after December 15, 2007.
-The deferral is not
permitted for leveraged lease transactions.
The final FSP reflecting
these decisions is discussed above.
The Action Alert also
indicates that the FASB is scheduled to have a meeting on February 6, 2008, and
plans to address the following projects or topics:
-FASB Statement No. 157, Fair
Value Measurements, implementation; and
-Deferral of the effective
date of AICPA Statement of Position (SOP) 07-1, Clarification of the Scope
of the Audit and Accounting Guide 'Investment Companies' and Accounting by
Parent Companies and Equity Method Investors for Investments in Investment
Companies.
The FASB will discuss issues
raised by respondents to proposed FSP FAS 157-a, "Application of FASB
Statement No. 157 to FASB Statement No. 13 and Its Related Interpretive
Accounting Pronouncements That Address Leasing Transactions." The FASB
will focus on the scope of the FSP and whether to issue the FSP as final. The
FASB will also discuss the partial deferral of the effective date of Statement
157 provided for in proposed FASB Staff Position (FSP) FAS 157-b,
"Effective Date of FASB Statement No.157." In addition, the FASB will
discuss whether to make final proposed FSP SOP 07-1-a, "Effective Date of
AICPA Statement of Position 07-1."
IASB Update -- IASB
Discusses Earnings per Share and Other Matters at Its January 22-24, 2008
Meeting
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As reported in its "IASB
Update" publication, the IASB met on January 22-24, 2008, and discussed
the following projects or topics:
-Earnings per share;
-Annual improvements process;
-Revenue recognition;
-IAS 24, Related Party
Disclosures;
-Update on IFRIC activities;
-Financial instruments;
-Liabilities and equity;
-Puttable
financial instruments and obligations arising on liquidation; and
-Insurance contracts.
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
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AUDITING AND INTERNAL
CONTROLS HEADLINES:
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Financial Statements --
PCAOB Issues Auditing Standard on Evaluating Consistency and Conforming
Amendments
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As discussed above under our
Accounting and SEC Summaries, the PCAOB published Auditing Standard No. 6, Evaluating
Consistency of Financial Statements (AS/6), and an accompanying set of
amendments to its interim auditing standards. AS/6 and the related amendments
update the auditor's responsibilities to evaluate and report on the consistency
of a company's financial statements and align the auditor's responsibilities
with FASB Statement No. 154, Accounting Changes and Error Corrections.
In addition, the standard also clarifies that auditor reports should indicate
whether an adjustment to previously issued financial statements results from a
change in accounting principle or the correction of a misstatement.
The PCAOB also removed the
hierarchy of GAAP from its interim auditing standards. The GAAP hierarchy identifies
the sources of accounting principles and the framework for selecting principles
to be used in preparing financial statements. The PCAOB believes that the GAAP
hierarchy is more appropriately located in the accounting standards and given
the FASB's intention to incorporate the hierarchy in
the accounting standards, it no longer will be needed
in the auditing standards.
Like other rules adopted by
the PCAOB, AS/6 and the amendments are not effective until approved by the SEC.
If approved by the SEC, AS/6 and the amendments will become effective 60 days
after the date of SEC approval.
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
======================
GOVERNMENT HEADLINES:
======================
GASB Report Issued --
Challenges Facing the GASB and Other Matters Discussed
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The January 2008 edition of
the "GASB Report" has been issued and includes the following
discussion items:
-GASB Calendar;
-New GASAC Members Named;
-Board Meeting Summary;
-Chairman's Notes;
-GASB Website Resources; and
-Who's Who at the GASB.
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