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.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017 FASB Board Meeting

Conceptual framework. The Board discussed various issues on the project and decided to:
  1. Retain the objective of financial reporting as presently described in FASB Concepts Statement No. 8, Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting—Chapter 1, The Objective of General Purpose Financial Reporting
  2. Continue to work simultaneously on the measurement and presentation phases of the conceptual framework project
  3. Add to its technical agenda a project on elements of financial statements defined in FASB Concepts Statement No. 6, Elements of Financial Statements.
The Board also discussed feedback received from comment letters on the proposed FASB Concepts Statement No. 8, Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting—Chapter 7, Presentation.

Technical corrections and improvements. The Board discussed proposed improvements to simplify the content and structure of one Industry Topic and one Industry Subtopic. The Board made the following decisions.

Topic 995, U.S. Steamship Entities

The guidance in Topic 995 should be superseded and all entities should recognize any remaining unrecognized deferred tax liabilities that are related to deposits in statutory reserves in accordance with Topic 740, Income Taxes.

The forthcoming proposed amendments should be effective upon issuance of a final Accounting Standards Update. Entities should disclose the type of temporary difference for which a deferred tax liability had not previously been recognized.

Subtopic 942-740, Financial Services—Depository and Lending—Income Taxes

The transition guidance in Subtopic 942-740 for bad debt reserves of savings and loans (and other qualified thrift lenders) that arose after December 31, 1987, should be superseded.

Additionally, the guidance related to the Comptroller of the Currency’s Banking Circular 202, Accounting for Net Deferred Tax Charges, should be superseded.

The forthcoming proposed amendments should be effective upon issuance of a final Accounting Standards Update.

Costs and Benefits

The Board concluded that it has received sufficient information and analysis on the proposed changes to make an informed decision on the issues presented. The Board also concluded that the expected benefits of the proposed changes would justify the costs.

Next Steps

The Board directed the staff to draft two separate proposed Accounting Standards Updates for vote by written ballot, with a comment period of 60 days.