Accounting Roundup — Third Quarter — 2019 | DART – Deloitte Accounting Research Tool

Welcome to Quarterly Accounting Roundup: Third Quarter — 2019. In the third quarter of 2019, the FASB issued a number of proposals, including proposed Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs) on the following topics:

Simplifying the balance sheet classification of debt.
Simplifying the issuer’s accounting for convertible instruments and contracts on an entity’s own equity.
Delaying the effective dates of certain major accounting standards for private companies, not-for-profit (NFP) entities, and certain small public companies.
The interaction between the FASB’s standard on the equity method and that on financial instruments.
Deferring the effective date of the Board’s standard on long-duration insurance contracts.
The effects of reference rate reform.

In addition, the SEC issued a statement1 that included considerations related to the expected discontinuation of London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) use in 2021 and how the transition from LIBOR may significantly affect financial markets and market participants (including public companies, investment companies and advisers, and broker-dealers). The SEC also proposed a rule that would modernize Regulation S-K’s disclosure requirements related to the description of business, legal proceedings, and risk factors. The changes are intended to improve the readability of disclosures, reduce repetition, and eliminate nonmaterial information, thereby simplifying compliance for registrants and making disclosures more meaningful for investors.

On the international front, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB®) published amendments that address interest rate benchmark reform as well as two exposure drafts (EDs) of proposed amendments that would (1) improve disclosures about accounting policies and (2) clarify the accounting for deferred taxes on leases and decommissioning obligations.