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Accounting Research
Manager(TM)
Weekly Summary of
Developments
April 27 - May 1, 2009
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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
SEC Reporting -- SEC Staff Publishes Updated Compliance
and Disclosure Interpretations
Interactive Data -- SEC Staff Publishes Small Entity
Compliance Guide for Mutual Fund Risk/Return Summary Information
Noncontrolling Interests -- FASB Discusses the Scope of Statement 160
Global Financial Crisis -- Financial Crisis Advisory Group Sends
Letter to G-20 Leaders
International Financial
Reporting -- IASB Issues
Agenda for May 7, 2009 IFRIC Meeting
Audit Risk Alert -- AICPA Issues Audit Risk Alert on
Employee Benefit Plans
Auditing and Internal
Controls Headlines
Agreed-Upon Procedures -- AICPA Issues Guidance for Engagements
That Address XBRL Data
Audit Risk Alert -- AICPA Issues Audit Risk Alert on
Employee Benefit Plans
Government Headlines
Derivative Instruments -- GASB Issues Guidance on Implementing
Statement 53
GASB Report Issued -- Fund Balance Reporting and Other
Matters Discussed
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ACCOUNTING AND SEC HEADLINES:
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SEC Reporting -- SEC Staff
Publishes Updated Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The staff in the SEC's
Division of Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) has published updates to certain of
its Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (C&DIs).
These interpretations by Corp Fin document selected staff views on a variety of
matters in a question and answer format. Topics updated in these C&DIs include:
-Non-GAAP financial measures;
-Source of foreign exchange
rate information;
-Management’s report on
internal control over financial reporting;
-Form 8-K requirements for
earnings reports and annual non-equity incentive plan awards;
-Beneficial ownership rules
for Section 16 reporting;
-Written trading plans;
-Statutory trust registration
of beneficial units;
-Exchanges of parent
guarantee for a subsidiary’s debt;
-Underwriter safeguards to
comply with Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933; and
-Continuous offerings.
See our Literature Update for
complete details.
Interactive Data -- SEC
Staff Publishes Small Entity Compliance Guide for Mutual Fund Risk/Return
Summary Information
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The SEC staff has published a
Small Entity Compliance Guide, Interactive Data for Mutual Fund Risk/Return
Summary. This guide summarizes and explains recent rules adopted by the SEC
that require mutual funds to provide the risk/return summary section of their
prospectuses to the SEC and on their websites, if they maintain one, in
interactive data format using eXtensible Business
Reporting Language (XBRL). The rule amendments also permit investment companies
to submit portfolio holdings information in the SEC's voluntary interactive
data program without being required to submit other financial information in
XBRL format.
Noncontrolling Interests -- FASB Discusses the Scope of
Statement 160
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As reported in its
"Summary of Board Decisions" publication, the FASB met on April 29,
2009, and discussed the scope of FASB Statement No. 160, Noncontrolling
Interests in Consolidated Financial Statements, which amends Accounting
Research Bulletin No. 51, Consolidated Financial Statements. The FASB
decided to clarify the scope of the partial sale and deconsolidation provisions
of Statement 160 by making such provisions applicable only to subsidiaries that
are businesses or nonprofit activities. In addition, the FASB also addressed
issues raised in EITF Issue No. 08-10, “Selected Statement 160 Implementation
Questions,” and decided:
-To modify EITF Issue No.
01-2, “Interpretations of APB Opinion No. 29,” to clarify that the exchange of
a group of assets that constitute a business in return for an equity interest
should be accounted for in accordance with the deconsolidation provisions of
Statement 160;
-That the partial sale and
deconsolidation provisions of Statement 160 should not apply to in-substance
real estate transactions; and
-That Statement 160 will
apply when a subsidiary is transferred to an equity method investee
or joint venture.
Global Financial Crisis --
Financial Crisis Advisory Group Sends Letter to G-20 Leaders
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The Financial Crisis Advisory
Group has issued a letter to the members of the G-20. This letter summarizes
this group's role in advising the IASB and the FASB about the standard-setting
implications of the global financial crisis and potential changes to the global
regulatory environment. The letter includes Attachment II, Strengthening
Transparency and Accountability.
Attachment II includes a
comprehensive overview of measures undertaken by the International Accounting
Standards Committee (IASC) Foundation and the IASB in responding to the
conclusions reached by the G-20 at their summit on April 2, 2009. Among those
recommendations were that accounting standard setters should:
-Improve standards for the
valuation of financial instruments based on their liquidity and investors’
holding horizons, while reaffirming the framework of fair value accounting;
-Reduce the complexity of
accounting standards for financial instruments;
-Strengthen accounting recognition
of loan-loss provisions by incorporating a broader range of credit information;
-Improve accounting standards
for provisioning, off-balance sheet exposures, and valuation uncertainty; and
-Make significant progress
towards a single set of high quality global accounting standards.
In addition, the G-20
recommended that the IASC Foundation, within the framework of the independent
accounting standard setting process, should improve involvement of
stakeholders, including regulators and emerging markets, through the IASB’s constitutional review.
International Financial Reporting -- IASB Issues Agenda for May 7, 2009 IFRIC
Meeting
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The IASB has issued an agenda
for the May 7, 2009 meeting of the International Financial Reporting
Interpretations Committee (IFRIC). IFRIC is expected to discuss the following
topics:
-Costs for compliance with
the European Commission Regulation Concerning the Registration, Evaluation,
Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals;
-Venture capital
consolidations and partial use of fair value through profit or loss;
-Determination of cash
equivalents;
-Review of tentative agenda
decisions;
-Staff recommendations for
tentative agenda decisions; and
-IFRIC work in progress.
Audit Risk Alert -- AICPA
Issues Audit Risk Alert on Employee Benefit Plans
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The AICPA has issued an Audit
Risk Alert, Employee Benefit Plans Industry Developments - 2009. This
Audit Risk Alert is intended to provide auditors of financial statements of
employee benefit plans with an overview of recent economic, industry,
technical, regulatory, and professional developments that may affect the audits
and other engagements they perform. This Audit Risk Alert also include a section discussing current and future rulemaking
or other activities that may impact employee benefit plans in the near future.
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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Agreed-Upon Procedures --
AICPA Issues Guidance for Engagements That Address XBRL Data
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The AICPA has issued
Statement of Position (SOP) 09-1, Performing Agreed-Upon Procedures
Engagements That Address the Completeness, Accuracy,
or Consistency of XBRL-Tagged Data. SOP 09-1 is an interpretive publication
representing recommendations regarding the application of Statements on
Standards for Attestation Engagements to engagements in which a practitioner
performs and reports on agreed-upon procedures related to the completeness,
accuracy, or consistency of XBRL-tagged data. Specifically, this SOP provides
guidance and a number of illustrative examples on its application to
practitioners performing an engagement under AT Section 201, Agreed-Upon Procedures
Engagements.Topics
covered in SOP 09-1 include the following:
-Subject matter of the
engagement;
-Conditions for engagement
performance;
-Establishing an
understanding with the client on the procedures to be performed and their
sufficiency;
-Responsibilities of both
management and the practitioner;
-Involvement of a specialist;
-Written representations;
-Reporting considerations;
-Knowledge of matters outside
the agreed-upon procedures; and
-Explanatory language in the
practitioner's report.
SOP 09-1 is effective April
28, 2009.
Audit Risk Alert -- AICPA
Issues Audit Risk Alert on Employee Benefit Plans
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As discussed above in our
Accounting and SEC Summaries, the AICPA has issued an Audit Risk Alert, Employee
Benefit Plans Industry Developments - 2009. This Audit Risk Alert is
intended to provide auditors of financial statements of employee benefit plans
with an overview of recent economic, industry, technical, regulatory, and
professional developments that may affect the audits and other engagements they
perform. This Audit Risk Alert also include a section
discussing current and future rulemaking or other activities that may impact
employee benefit plans in the near future.
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:
======================
Derivative Instruments --
GASB Issues Guidance on Implementing Statement 53
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The GASB has issued, Guide
to Implementation of Statement 53 on Accounting and Financial Reporting for
Derivative Instruments. The purpose of the guide is to assist preparers and
auditors of governmental financial statements, and those who advise them, in
implementing the GASB’s recently issued standards on
accounting and financial reporting for derivative instruments. Specifically,
this guide provides answers to more than 100 questions on topics relating to
the implementation of GASB Statement No. 53, Accounting and Financial
Reporting for Derivative Instruments. In addition to the illustrations that
were included in GASB 53, the journal entries that support the transactions in
the illustrations have been added and included in this guide.
GASB 53 is effective for
periods beginning after June 15, 2009.
GASB Report Issued -- Fund
Balance Reporting and Other Matters Discussed
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The March 2009 edition of the
"GASB Report" has been issued and includes the following discussion
items:
-GASB calendar;
-New Financial Accounting
Foundation chairman elected;
-Summary of recent GASB
meetings;
-GASB Statement No. 54, Fund
Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Type Definitions;
-GASB Invitation to Comment, Pension
Accounting and Financial Reporting;
-Summary of the Governmental
Accounting Standards Advisory Council meeting held on March 12-13, 2009; and
-Update on GASB staff.
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