On December 15th, the SEC voted to approve the 2022 budget of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and the associated annual accounting support fee. The PCAOB monitors the audits and auditors of the financial statements that are submitted by registered broker-dealers and issuers. Section 109 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires the PCAOB to establish, with SEC approval, a reasonable accounting support fee to fund its operations. Continue reading "SEC Announces Approval of PCAOB Budget and..." »

On November 23, FASB issued proposed updates to the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) Financial Reporting Taxonomy concerning the Proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) on Financial Instruments—Credit Losses (Topic 326): Troubled Debt Restructurings and Vintage Disclosures. The proposed taxonomy updates are comprised of new elements, element deprecations, reference revisions, and updates to documentation and standard labels. Continue reading "FASB Proposes Updates for Future Taxonomy..." »

On November 29th, the SEC’s Office of the Chief Accountant and the Division of Corporation Finance published Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 120, an interpretive guidance for public companies which details how to properly identify and disclose compensation costs for “spring-loaded awards” made to executives. Spring-loaded awards are share-based compensation arrangements in which a company grants stock options or other awards shortly before it announces market-moving information, for example, the disclosure of a substantial transaction or an earnings release that surpasses expected results. Continue reading "SEC Staff Issues Accounting Guidance on..." »