Today, the FASB continued its discussions of whether to defer certain provisions of ASU 2011-05. In early November, the Board had issued a proposed ASU to solicit feedback from constituents on whether to indefinitely defer the provision in ASU 2011-05¹ requiring that adjustments for items that are reclassified from other comprehensive income (OCI) to net income be presented separately in both the statement of net income and the statement of OCI. At today’s meeting, the FASB staff presented the Board with an overview of constituents’ feedback obtained during the comment letter process. Noting that almost all of the respondents strongly supported the proposed ASU, the FASB unanimously voted to finalize the indefinite deferral.

During the deferral period, entities will be required to comply with all existing requirements for reclassification adjustments in ASC 220.² The effective date for the unaffected provisions in ASU 2011-05 (i.e., the requirement to report the components of comprehensive income in either (1) a continuous statement of comprehensive income or (2) two separate but consecutive statements) is unchanged. For public entities, this effective date is fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2011. For nonpublic entities, the provisions are effective for annual periods ending after December 15, 2012, and interim and annual periods thereafter.

The FASB is expected to issue a final ASU on the deferral by the end of this year.

[1] FASB Accounting Standards Update No. 2011-05, Presentation of Comprehensive Income.

[2] FASB Accounting Standards Codification Topic 220, Comprehensive Income.