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, February 27, 2019 FASB Board Meeting

Disclosures by business entities about government assistance.The Board continued redeliberations on the proposed Accounting Standards Update, Government Assistance (Topic 832): Disclosures by Business Entities about Government Assistance.    
 
The Board discussed comments received from the external review of the staff draft of the final Update and next steps in the project. The Board directed the staff to conduct outreach to gain additional information about the expected costs and the expected benefits of the staff draft of a final Update.  
 

Codification improvements—financial instruments. [This summary will be posted as soon as it becomes available.]


Conceptual framework—elements.The Board continued its discussion of the definition of a liability.
 
The Board decided that:
  1. All present obligations to transfer assets and obligations to deliver shares sufficient in number to satisfy a determinable or defined obligation should meet the definition of a liability. 
  2. An analysis discussing the measurement of obligations to issue a fixed number of shares is unnecessary for the Board to deliberate on in the elements phase.

Disclosure framework: disclosure review—income taxes. The Board continued redeliberations on its July 2016 proposed Accounting Standards Update, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Disclosure Framework—Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Income Taxes, focusing on the proposed requirement to disaggregate income tax expense and income taxes paid between domestic amounts and foreign amounts.
 
The Board decided to require the disaggregation of income tax expense (or benefit) and income taxes paid by federal or national, state, and foreign amounts. The Board clarified that income tax expense (or benefit) and income taxes paid on foreign earnings imposed by the jurisdiction of domicile should be included in the amount for that jurisdiction of domicile.  
 
The Board decided to issue a revised proposed Update for public comment that includes amendments from all the decisions made since the Board issued its 2016 proposed Update.
 
Next Steps
 
The Board directed the staff to draft a proposed Accounting Standards Update for vote by written ballot. The Board decided to provide a comment letter period of either 45 days after issuance or May 31, 2019, whichever is later.