FASB Offers Trio of Drafts; IFAC Thinks About Small Companies

FASB Offers Trio of Drafts; IFAC Wants Small, Midsized Thoughts

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has ratified a trio of conclusions reached by its Emerging Issues Task Force. Each of the draft abstracts is available on the board's Web site and will be open to a 30-day comment period.

The drafts include:

• "Accounting for the Conversion of an Instrument that Became Convertible upon the Issuer's Exercise of a Call Option;"
• "Accounting for Sabbatical Leave and Other Similar Benefits Pursuant to FASB Statement No. 43," which addresses whether an employee's right to paid leave requires the completion of a minimum service period when the benefit does not increase with additional years of service; and,
• "How Taxes Collected from Customers and Remitted to Governmental Authorities Should Be Presented in the Income Statement," which addresses the handling of nondiscretionary amounts.

The abstracts and information on how to submit comments, are available at www.fasb.org.Separately, the International Federation of Accountants has issued a discussion paper, titled "Preliminary Views on Accounting Standards for Small and Medium-Sized Entities," which urges standards-setters and regulators to consider the needs of small and midsized companies when developing rules and regulations.The paper, available at www.ifac.org, notes that small and midsized businesses represent 95 percent of the businesses in the European Union, 97 percent of the total companies in the Asia Pacific region and 99.7 percent of all U.S. employers.