FASB Survey Due May 30th, 2013
It’s that time of year again. The time when the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council seeks input into the decisions they make that affect accounting policy for all. Changes are coming to the FASB agenda and they are seeking input by stakeholders to help shape the direction of those changes. They are asking stakeholders to prioritize the active FASB projects in order of importance. There is also a chance to add some projects that are not on the agenda or re-enact those that have been removed for one reason or the other. As FASB is the board that makes decisions regarding accounting policy in the United States it is in the best interest of all who make their living abiding by these policies to have at least some input into this future agenda.
One of the key elements of a future agenda is the effort to co-ordinate the FASB standards to the IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) standards. Unfortunately, this is excluded from the FASB request for input. Other projects that FASB has excluded from this agenda survey are those that are expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2013 or that are expected to be completed in less than a year.
For those that object to the IASB and FASB convergence, they are informed that the direction of IASB standards in the United States will remain as they are but they are asked to consider what result a convergence will have on the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) in the US and whether an improvement to GAAP will be better than implementing the IFRS’s (International Financial Reporting Standards). If you would like to fill out one of these surveys, you can choose either the short-form or the full-form. It’s due by May 30th, so make sure you get it in time.
If you have questions about what each project means, at the end of the survey there is an appendix with descriptions and detailed information on each project and references to the IASB projects. Some of these include general hedge and Macro-hedge accounting.
Long Form Link: https://www.fafsurveys.org/se.ashx?s=4CA36E926D80F092
Short Form Link: https://www.fafsurveys.org/se.ashx?s=4CA36E924F5DBCB7