First Quarter — 2021
Welcome to Quarterly Accounting Roundup: First Quarter — 2021. In the first
quarter of 2021, the FASB released Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs) that (1) refine
the scope of the guidance on reference rate reform, (2) simplify the guidance on
identifying performance obligations by providing a new practical expedient for
private-company franchisors, and (3) provide private companies and not-for-profit
organizations with an accounting alternative to the goodwill triggering event
assessment.
On the regulatory front, SEC Acting Chair Allison H. Lee released a statement directing
the Division of Corporation Finance to review existing guidance on climate change and
requested input from interested parties on climate-related and other environmental,
social, and governance (ESG) disclosures. Other important developments at the SEC
include the issuance of disclosure guidance for special-purpose acquisition companies
(SPACs).
In international news, the IASB® published two interrelated sets of amendments
that revise its guidance on both accounting estimates and disclosure of accounting
policies. In addition, the IASB published an exposure draft (ED) that would amend IFRS
161 to extend the availability of the practical expedient that relieves a lessee from
assessing whether a rent concession related to coronavirus disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) is
a lease modification.
Footnotes
1
IFRS 16, Leases.