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, January 23, 2019 FASB Board Meeting

Disclosure framework: disclosure review—income taxes. The Board continued redeliberations of its July 2016 proposed Accounting Standards Update, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Disclosure Framework—Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Income Taxes. The Board discussed external review comments on a draft of a revised proposed Update, including whether tax expense and taxes paid on foreign earnings that are imposed by the country of domicile of the entity should be classified as a foreign or domestic amount.
 
The Board decided not to require that an entity disclose the amount of the transition tax liability resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the line item in the statement of financial position in which the liability is presented.  
 
The Board also decided not to require that an entity disclose a description of a legally enforceable agreement with a government, including the duration of the agreement, the commitments made with the government under that agreement, and the amount of benefit that reduces or may reduce its income tax burden.
 
Next Steps
 
The Board directed the staff to perform outreach on the operability and benefits of classifying tax expense and taxes paid on foreign earnings that are imposed by the country of domicile of the entity as a foreign or domestic amount.


Simplifying the balance sheet classification of debt. The Board continued redeliberations of the proposed Accounting Standards Update, Debt (Topic 470): Simplifying the Classification of Debt in a Classified Balance Sheet (Current versus Noncurrent). 
 
The Board directed the staff to continue its research on a potential alternative that considers the contractual linkage between certain debt arrangements and unused long-term financing arrangements in place at the balance sheet date. That research would consider the underlying economics of and the markets for those arrangements and illustrative examples related to unused long-term financing arrangements.
 

Financial instruments—credit losses—targeted transition relief.  The Board decided to exclude debt securities classified as held-to-maturity from the scope of a proposed Accounting Standards Update that would address targeted transition relief for Topic 326, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses.  
 
Analysis of Costs and Benefits 
 
The Board concluded that it has received sufficient information and analysis to make an informed decision and that the expected benefits of the proposed amendments would justify the expected costs. 
 
Next Steps 
 
The Board directed the staff to draft a proposed Accounting Standards Update for vote by written ballot with a 30-day comment period.