At the 21 April 2005 joint Board meeting, the FASB and the IASB agreed that non-owner changes in net assets (the Statement of Earnings and Comprehensive Income) should be presented in a single statement with a total for non-owner changes in net assets (often referred to as 'comprehensive income') and a required subtotal called 'net income' or 'profit or loss'.

The staff asked the Board to consider the effect of this decision on the presentation of per-share measures, namely earnings per share (EPS) and comprehensive income per share (CPS). Specifically, the Board was asked whether they would require a measure of CPS? The Board debated this issue extensively with a number of Board members expressing a desire to ultimately eliminate IAS 33 as a way of de-emphasising EPS in financial reporting. The Board agreed to retain IAS 33 as presently drafted for purposes of completing the performance reporting project. Consequently, CPS would be a measure that is permissible but not required. In answering a subsequent question posed by the staff, the Board agreed that should CPS be disclosed, this would be in the notes to the financial statements and the disclosure provisions would apply that require reconciliation of the numerator used and a line item that is reported in the income statement.