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Accounting Roundup – October 2007

06 Nov 2007

We have posted the October 2007 Edition of Accounting Roundup published by Deloitte & Touche LLP (USA).

Topics covered in this issue include:

FASB Developments

  • FASB Decides No Deferral of Fair Value Statements 157 and 159; Proposal to Indefinitely Defer SOP 07-1 Affecting Investment Company Accounting Expected
  • FASB Meets With Accounting Standards Board of Japan to Discuss Global Convergence
AICPA Developments
  • AICPA Proposes Revisions to Accounting and Review Services Guidance
  • AICPA Begins Project to Redraft Standards to Achieve Greater Clarity
SEC Developments
  • SEC Feedback on Executive Compensation Disclosures: 'Where's the Analysis?'
  • SEC Approves the Use of Surrogate to Value Employee Share Options
PCAOB Developments
  • PCAOB Issues Draft Guidance for Auditors of Smaller Public Companies
  • PCAOB Approves Amendments to Inspection Frequency for Firms That Do Not Regularly Issue Audit Reports
  • PCAOB Issues Inspection Report on Small U.S. Audit Firms
International Developments
  • IASB and Accounting Standards Board of Japan Make Progress Toward Goal of Convergence in Accounting Standards by 2011
  • IASB Extends the Deadline for Comments on Proposed IFRS for Small and Medium-Sized Entities
  • IASB Publishes Proposals for Amendments to IFRSs Under the First Annual Improvements Project
  • International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation Appoints Gerrit Zalm as Chairman of the Trustees
Click to view Accounting Roundup (PDF 323k). You will find past issues of Accounting Roundup Here.

 

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New IFRS publications from Deloitte Korea

05 Nov 2007

In March 2007, the Korean Financial Supervisory Commission and the Korea Accounting Institute announced a plan for adopting Korean equivalents of International Financial Reporting Standards (K-IFRSs).

All listed companies will be required to prepare their annual financial statements under K-IFRSs beginning in 2011. Listed companies other than financial institutions will be permitted to do so beginning in 2009. Unlisted companies will be allowed to use K-IFRSs. To help clients and staff in the transition to K-IFRSs, Deloitte Korea has just issued four IFRS publications in the Korean language, as follows: Also, Deloitte Korea manages a Korean Language IFRS Website.
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FASB codification nears public release for testing

05 Nov 2007

The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) will release the FASB Accounting Standards Codification™ (Codification) for verification by constituents in late 2007 or early 2008. During the one-year verification period, the FASB will make the Codification available through a new web-based research system to solicit feedback from constituents to confirm that the Codification accurately reflects existing US GAAP for nongovernmental entities.

The goal of the Codification is to simplify the organisation of thousands of authoritative US accounting pronouncements issued by multiple standard-setters, including FASB, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and the Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF). Once approved by the FASB, the Codification will become the single source of authoritative US GAAP and will supersede existing FASB, AICPA, EITF, and related literature. At that time, only one level of authoritative GAAP will exist. All other literature will be nonauthoritative. The Codification reorganises the thousands of US GAAP pronouncements into roughly 90 accounting topics, and displays all topics using a consistent structure. Also to be included is relevant Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidance that will follow the same topical structure in separate sections in the Codification.
Click for FASB News Release (PDF 63k).

 

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IFRIC agenda pages are updated

05 Nov 2007

We have updated the following IFRIC agenda issues pages to reflect the discussions and decisions at the meeting of the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee on Thursday 1 November 2007:

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20% of US companies would consider using IFRSs if allowed

05 Nov 2007

Preliminary results of a new survey by Deloitte & Touche LLP (USA) show that approximately 20 percent of CFOs and senior finance professionals (representing approximately 300 US companies) would consider adopting International Financial Reporting Standards, if given a choice by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Approximately two-thirds of those companies would consider adopting IFRSs within the next three years. Survey results also indicate that companies believe their personnel lack sufficient knowledge of IFRSs to make the conversion and to maintain IFRS financial statements, both among domestic and non-US operations. More than half those companies considering IFRS say they lack skilled resources in their US operations, while approximately one-third felt they lacked skilled resources in their non-US operations. Click for Survey Announcement (PDF 23k). A more detailed report on the survey is expected to be available late this month, which we will post on IAS Plus.

 

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Staff Q&A on the Insurance Contracts Discussion Paper

04 Nov 2007

In response to many questions received about the service margins section of the Discussion Paper on Preliminary Views on Insurance Contracts, the IASB staff has prepared a set of questions and answers.

There is a link to the Q&A on the Insurance Contracts Project Page on the IASB's website. The Q&A can also be downloaded directly via the following hyperlink: http://media.iasb.org/Service%20margin%20draft%20FAQs%20(2).pdf (PDF 67k).

 

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Deloitte's Model IFRS Financial Statements for 2007

03 Nov 2007

We have published our model IFRS financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2007. These statements illustrate the application of the presentation and disclosure requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) by an entity that is not a first-time adopter of IFRSs.

They also contain additional disclosures that are considered to be best practice, particularly where such disclosures are included in illustrative examples provided with a specific Standard. Click to download our IFRS Model Financial Statements for 2007 (PDF 700k). You will always find permanent links to these model financial statements and related presentation, disclosure, and compliance checklists on our Model Financial Statements Page.

 

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Notes from the November 2007 IFRIC meeting

03 Nov 2007

The International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC) met at the IASB's offices in London on Thursday 1 November 2007. (The meeting had been scheduled to continue on Friday 2 November, but IFRIC completed its work in one day.)

The preliminary and unofficial notes taken by Deloitte observers at the meeting are now available.

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IASB November 2007 Board meeting agenda

02 Nov 2007

The International Accounting Standards Board will hold its November 2007 meeting at the Board's offices, 30 Cannon Street, London, on Tuesday to Friday, 13-16 November 2007.

The full agenda for the meeting can be found here.  We will post any updates to the agenda, and our Deloitte observer notes from the meeting, on this page as they are available.

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EFRAG will do cost-benefit assessments of IFRSs

30 Oct 2007

The October 2007 Edition of EFRAG Update, published by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, reports that EFRAG is likely to extend the work that it normally carries out in making IFRS endorsement recommendations to the European Commission to include 'some form of cost-benefit study' for individual IFRSs, including Interpretations.

Here is an excerpt from the EFRAG Update:

At the October meeting of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), the European Commission explained that it has been decided that more extensive work on the costs and benefits of Standards and Interpretations needs to be carried out in future. The IASB has apparently agreed to carry out such work when developing proposals for new Standards and Interpretations, but that commitment will not cover projects already well-advanced and material issued but not yet endorsed. The European Commission is therefore as a result discussing with EFRAG the need for some form of cost-benefit study to be carried out as part of the endorsement process. Those discussions are ongoing but it is likely that EFRAG will be encouraged to extend the work it carries out in formulating its endorsement advice. This would be the case not only for Standards and Interpretations not yet issued, but also for those Standards and Interpretations on which EFRAG has not yet issued its final endorsement advice; in other words, IFRIC 13 Customer Loyalty Programmes, IFRIC 14 The Limit on a Defined Benefit Asset, Minimum Funding Requirements and their Interaction, and IAS 1 (Revised) Presentation of Financial Statements. It was noted that some further work would also need to be carried out, probably largely by the Commission, on the material on which EFRAG has already issued its endorsement advice: IFRIC 12 Service Concession Arrangements and IAS 23 (Revised) Borrowing Costs.

As a result, it was now unlikely that IFRICs 12-14, IAS 23 (Revised), and IAS 1 (Revised) will be endorsed before the end of 2007. EFRAG will continue to issue regular updates on the endorsement process on its website (www.efrag.org) in the form of Endorsement Status Reports [these are available on IAS Plus's EFRAG Page].

Click for October 2007 Edition of EFRAG Update.

 

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