During a recent Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) webcast (archived until August 19, 2011), FAF President and CEO Teresa Polley, along with FASB Chairman Leslie Seidman and FAF Post-Implementation Review Leader Mark Schroeder, discussed the objectives and process that will be followed by the FAF’s post-implementation review (PIR) team. The PIR process is designed to obtain feedback about whether accounting standards issued by the FASB and GASB achieve their objective of providing decision-useful information to financial statement users.

The PIR team will review significant standards that meet certain criteria and will:

• Gather feedback about the standard-setting process.
• Answer the following questions in reviewing each standard:
• Does the standard achieve its intended objectives?
• Is the cost-benefit result appropriate?
• Did the standard have unintended consequences?
• Be independent of the FASB and GASB.

The PIR team has chosen Interpretation 48¹ (codified in ASC 740-10²) as its pilot case, and plans to issue a summary of its review findings near the end of summer. Constituents interested in participating in post-implementation review surveys for the pilot or future reviews can register with the FAF.

Additional information is available in the FAF’s press release announcing the webcast.

[1] FASB Interpretation No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes.

[2] FASB Accounting Standards Codification Subtopic 740-10, Income Taxes: Overall.