===================================================
Accounting Research
Manager(TM)
Weekly Summary of
Developments
January 25-29, 2010
===================================================
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
Consolidation -- FASB Discusses Finalizing Deferral of
Statement 167 for Certain Investment Entities and Other Matters
Mergers & Acquisitions -- FASB Issues Guidance For
Not-for-Profit Entities
Financial Instruments -- New Edition of Interpretation Published
Equity Purchases -- SEC Publishes Proposal on Issuer
Purchases of Certain Equity Securities
Form 8-K -- SEC Staff Updates Interpretations
Auditing and Internal
Controls Headlines
Construction Companies -- New Edition of Knowledge-Based Audits
Published
Engagement Standards -- Chapters Updated
Special Purpose Financial
Statements -- Proposed
AICPA Auditing Standard Discussed
Government Headlines
GASB Technical Plan -- Approval of GASB Technical Plan
Discussed
=============================
ACCOUNTING AND SEC HEADLINES:
=============================
Consolidation -- FASB
Discusses Finalizing Deferral of Statement 167 for Certain Investment Entities
and Other Matters
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
As reported in its
"Summary of Board Decisions" publication, the FASB met on January 27,
2010, and discussed the following topics:
-Implementation of FASB
Statement No. 167, Amendments to FASB Interpretation No. 46(R);
-Financial statement
presentation; and
-Insurance contracts.
The FASB discussed comments
received on its proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU), Consolidation
(Topic 810): Amendments to Statement 167 for Certain Investment Funds, and
affirmed its prior decision to defer Statement 167 for certain investment
entities. Investment companies with all of the attributes specified in FASB
Accounting Standards CodificationTM (Codification) paragraph
946-10-15-2(a) through (d) may qualify for the deferral. In addition, the FASB
affirmed that certain entities for which it is industry practice to apply
guidance consistent with the measurement principles in Topic 946, Financial
Services-Investment Companies, for financial reporting purposes may also
qualify for the deferral and would also be required to meet the other
requirements in the proposed ASU to qualify for the deferral.
The FASB finished discussing
the remaining issues related to its financial statement presentation project
from its January 19, 2010 joint meeting with the IASB. The FASB decided that an
entity would also be required to disclose for each reportable segment:
-A measure of operating cash
flow and reconcile the sum of operating cash flows of its reportable segments
to operating cash flow as reported in the statement of cash flows.
-A measure of liabilities if
that amount is reported to the chief operating decision maker.
-A measure of operating
assets and a measure of operating liabilities.
In connection with its
project on insurance contracts, the FASB discussed contractual features that
allow policyholders to take actions that change the amount, timing,
uncertainty, or nature of benefits that they will receive (policyholder
options). The FASB tentatively decided that an entity should consider
policyholder options, as well as options, forwards, and guarantees related to
existing coverage, in the measurement of the insurance contract on a
look-through basis using the expected value of future cash flows related to the
features.
Mergers & Acquisitions
-- FASB Issues Guidance For Not-for-Profit Entities
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The FASB has issued an ASU
No. 2010-07, Not-for-Profit Entities (Topic 958): Not-for-Profit Entities:
Mergers and Acquisitions. This ASU has been issued to include in the
Codification the requirements in FASB Statement No. 164, Not-for-Profit
Entities: Mergers and Acquisitions. Among other things, Statement 164
establishes principles and requirements for how a not-for-profit entity:
-Determines whether a combination
is a merger or an acquisition;
-Applies the carryover method
in accounting for a merger;
-Applies the acquisition
method in accounting for an acquisition, including determining which of the
combining entities is the acquirer; and
-Determines what information
to disclose to enable users of financial statements to evaluate the nature and
financial effects of a merger or an acquisition.
Statement 164 became
effective for mergers for which the merger date is on or after the beginning of
an initial reporting period beginning on or after December 15, 2009, and
acquisitions for which the acquisition date is on or after the beginning of the
first annual reporting period beginning on or after December 15, 2009.
Financial Instruments --
New Edition of Interpretation Published
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
We have published the 2010
edition of Financial Instruments. The primary objective of this
publication is to serve as a comprehensive reference manual of generally
accepted accounting principles in the
-ASU 2009-5, Fair Value
Measurements and Disclosures (ASC Topic 820 );
-FASB Statement No. 166, Accounting
for Transfers of Financial Assets - An Amendment of FASB Statement No. 140;
and
-Statement 167.
See our Literature Update for
complete details.
Equity Purchases -- SEC
Publishes Proposal on Issuer Purchases of Certain Equity Securities
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The SEC has issued for public
comment a proposal, Purchases of Certain Equity Securities by the Issuer and
Others. This proposal provides issuers with a “safe harbor” from liability
for manipulation when they repurchase their common stock in the market in
accordance with the proposal’s manner, timing, price, and volume conditions.
According to the SEC, this proposal is intended to clarify and modernize the
safe harbor provisions in light of market developments since the original
adoption of current safe harbor rules. Specifically, this proposal would amend
Rule 10b-18 to:
-Modify the timing condition
to preclude Rule 10b-18 purchases as the opening purchase in the principal
market for the security and in the market where the purchase is effected;
-Relax the price condition
for certain volume-weighted average price transactions;
-Limit the disqualification
provision in fast moving markets under certain specific conditions;
-Modify the “merger
exclusion” provision to extend the time in which the safe harbor is unavailable
in connection with an acquisition by a special purpose acquisition company; and
-Update certain definitional
provisions.
Comments on this proposal are
due March 1, 2010.
Form 8-K -- SEC Staff
Updates Interpretations
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
The staff of the Division of
Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) of the SEC has updated its Compliance and
Disclosure Interpretation (C&DI), Exchange Act Form 8-K. This
C&DI provides interpretations by Corp Fin, in a question and answer format,
of the SEC’s rules and regulations related to Form 8-K under the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934. The most significant changes were made to questions 106.03 through
106.06 to provide further guidance on the following topics:
-Conditional exemption
provided in Item 2.02 of Form 8-K;
-Whether the failure to
furnish a required Form 8-K in a timely matter affects a company’s ability to
use the Form S-3 registration statement form; and
-Whether a Form 8-K is
required when a company issues a press release announcing its results of
operations for a just-completed fiscal quarter, including its expected adjusted
earnings (a non-GAAP financial measure) for the fiscal period.
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
=======================================
AUDITING AND INTERNAL
CONTROLS HEADLINES:
=======================================
Construction Companies --
New Edition of Knowledge-Based Audits Published
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
We have published the 2010
edition of Knowledge-Based Audits of Construction Companies and Contractors.
This publication is designed to help the auditor efficiently and effectively
perform financial statement audits of nonpublic construction entities in
accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the
See our Literature Update for
complete details.
Engagement Standards --
Chapters Updated
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
We have updated the “Audit
Engagements”, "Compilation and Review Engagements", and
"Attestation Engagements" chapters of Engagement Standards.
Revisions to this publication include new guidance on the following topics:
-Communicating internal
control related matters in an audit;
-Interim financial
information;
-Financial statements
prepared in conformity with IFRS;
-Recently issued standards on
accounting and review services;
-Subsequent events;
-Going concern issues; and
-Reporting on the design of
internal control.
See our Literature Update for
complete details.
Special Purpose Financial
Statements -- Proposed AICPA Auditing Standard Discussed
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
We have added a GAAS Update
Service that discusses the following AICPA documents:
-Proposed SAS, Special
Considerations - Audits of Financial Statements Prepared in Accordance With
Special Purpose Frameworks; and
-Proposed SAS, Special
Considerations - Audits of Single Financial Statements and Specific Elements,
Accounts, or Items of a Financial Statement.
These proposed SASs
would supersede section 544 of SAS 1 (AU Section 544), Lack of Conformity With
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and all except paragraphs 19-21
of the existing SAS 62 (AU Section 623), Special Reports. To facilitate
convergence with the International Standards on Auditing (ISA), the proposed SASs have been drafted using ISA 800, Special
Considerations - Audits of Financial Statements Prepared in Accordance with
Special Purpose Frameworks, and ISA 805, Special Considerations - Audits
of Single Financial Statements and Specific Elements, Accounts or Items of a
Financial Statement, as a base. The differences between the AICPA’s proposed SASs and ISA 800
and ISA 805 that have no compelling reason have been eliminated.
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 Technical Plan --
Approval of GASB Technical Plan Discussed
For detail, please contact info@zy-cpa.com
We have published a
Governmental GAAP Update that discusses the GASB's
approval of its technical plan for the first third of 2010. The updated
technical agenda includes changes to the previous technical agenda in terms of
planned issuance dates and the addition of certain new projects. Among other
changes to its previous technical agenda the GASB added a current project on
economic condition reporting, and a potential project on fiduciary
responsibilities.
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