Tentative Board Decisions
Tentative Board decisions are provided for those interested in
following the Board´s deliberations. All of the reported decisions are
tentative and may be changed at future Board meetings.
April 1, 2015 FASB Board Meeting
Revenue Recognition—Identifying Performance Obligations and Licensing.
The Board directed the staff to draft a proposed Accounting Standards
Update for vote by written ballot. The Board decided the comment period
for the proposed Update will end on June 30, 2015, but authorized the
staff to extend the deadline, if necessary, to provide a 40-day comment
period.
Revenue Recognition—Potential Deferral of the Effective Date of Accounting Standards Update 2014-09.
The Board met to discuss the results of staff research and outreach
regarding the effective date of Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-09,
Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606) ("the new
revenue standard"), and to decide whether to defer the effective date of
the new revenue standard. The Board specifically discussed the
following issues related to the effective date of the new revenue
standard:
- Deferral of the effective date
- "Early adoption" provision.
Deferral of the Effective Date
The Board decided to defer the effective date of the new revenue
standard by one year. As a result, public entities would apply the new
revenue standard to annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017. Nonpublic entities would apply the new revenue standard to annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018.
Public entities would apply the new revenue standard to interim reporting
periods within annual reporting periods beginning after December 15,
2017 (that is, a public entity would be required to apply the new
revenue standard beginning in the first interim period within the year
of adoption). Nonpublic entities would apply the new revenue standard to
interim reporting periods within annual reporting periods
beginning after December 15, 2019 (that is, a nonpublic entity would not
be required to apply the new revenue standard in interim periods within
the year of adoption).
Early Adoption Provision
The Board decided to permit both public and nonpublic entities to adopt
the new revenue standard early, but not before the original public
entity effective date (that is, annual periods beginning after December 15, 2016). A public entity would apply the new revenue standard to all interim reporting periods within the year of adoption. A nonpublic entity would not be required to apply the new revenue standard in interim periods within the year of adoption.
Next Steps
The Board directed the staff to draft a proposed Accounting Standards
Update for vote by written ballot that will include the tentative
decisions reached by the Board. The Board decided on a 30-day comment
period for the proposed Update.
Clarifying Certain Existing Principles on Statement of Cash Flows.
The Board decided that clarifying certain existing principles within
Topic 230, Statement of Cash Flows, would only incrementally reduce
diversity in practice about the classification of cash receipts and cash
payments. Therefore, the Board decided to have the Emerging Issues Task
Force (EITF) consider nine specific cash flow issues with the goal of
reducing the existing diversity in practice on a timely basis. The nine
specific issues to be addressed by the EITF include the classification
of cash flows related to settlement of insurance claims, debt prepayment
or extinguishment costs, restricted cash, settlement of zero coupon
bonds, distributions received from equity method investees, settlement
of life insurance contracts, contingent consideration payments made
after a business combination, beneficial interests in securitization
transactions, and application of the predominance principle.
The Board also decided to add a research project to its agenda to
evaluate ways to improve the guidance on the classification of cash
receipts and cash payments.