The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released an exposure draft of proposed guidance aimed at clarifying the consolidation guidance in Topic 810.
Stakeholders had raised concerns that the current guidance was “difficult to understand and navigate,” according to the board, so it has proposed a number of amendments that would reorganize and clarify certain items.
Among other things, the proposal would reorganize the current Topic 810 into Topic 812, with separate subtopics for variable-interest entities and voting interest entities, and the guidance for “Consolidation of Entities Controlled by Contract” currently in Topic 810 would be moved to Topic 958, “Not-for-Profit Entities.” The guidance currently in Subtopic 810-30 for research and development arrangements would be superseded.
In addition, certain areas of the guidance would be clarified to make it easier to understand, but without changing the analyses performed or the outcomes currently reached.
Comments are due by Dec. 4, 2017.
