Vol. 24 I No. 10 I Aug. 16-Sept. 12, 2010
webcpa.com

FASB, IASB hone convergence plan

planning to publish,” said Patrick Finnegan, an IASB board member based in London. “They’ve been communicating to us a concern that in order to be responsive and provide what they would consider high-quality input, they expressed a strong preference to have the exposure drafts staggered.”

The updated work plan recently unveiled by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board reflects stakeholder concerns about the time required to review a number of exposure drafts in order to meet the June 2011 target date of completing major convergence projects.

In June, the standard-setters released a modified work plan to outline how they will proceed on the ongoing strat-

Standard-setters to prioritize major projects to meet 2011 date

BY LIZ GOLD

egy of melding U.S. GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards, retaining the June 2011 date for completing the major projects addressed in a joint Memorandum of Understanding.

“All of our key stakeholders have been watching very closely the discussions that [FASB and the IASB] have been holding for many months, and anticipating the outcome of our deliberations, in particular the documents we were

BRAKING THE VOLUME OF EDS

As a result, both boards have promised to not publish more than four exposure drafts a quarter.

In May, FASB issued an exposure draft addressing financial instruments, while in June, FASB and the IASB rolled out proposed revenue recognition and fair value measurement draft standards (for more on both, see page 13). At press time, an exposure draft on leases was expected to be released

See CONVERGENCE on 37

THIS CALL SPONSORED BY: New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is one of the Democrats benefiting from accounting PACs’ new even-handedness — to the tune of more than $24,000 in the cur- rent election cycle. © AP WIDE WORLD

Political fundraisers in the accounting profession began shift- ing their largesse toward congressional Democrats after they won control over both the House and the Senate four years ago.

But now with Tea Party activists screaming for the heads of incumbents and Republican candidates showing strength across the country, is the accounting profession resurrecting its over whelming partisan support for the GOP in time for the mid-term elections?

Not yet.

In fact, an exclusive Accounting Today analysis of Federal Election Commission filings as of mid-June indicates that political action committee fundraising groups sponsored by the profession have been channeling even more support to Democrats in the 2010 campaign than they did during the 2008 Obama victory.

Thus far in 2010, PACs from the major firms and the American Institute of CPAs have earmarked roughly 54 percent of their donations to the GOP. By contrast, during the last mid-term elections in 2006, those groups shelled out over $5.4 million to federal candidates, with about 70 percent earmarked for Republicans. But in 2008, with the GOP in the minority on Capitol Hill and about to lose the White House, the proportion of accounting campaign contributions to Republicans dropped sharply to 58 percent.