The Financial Accounting Standards Board is studying three specific implementation issues that have cropped up in the adoption of the new revenue recognition standard to determine whether the standard should be revised, and with that whether the effective date of the standard should be delayed.
FASB Chairman Russ Golden said at a national accounting conference he has authorized FASB staff to conduct research on three specific issues that have produced different views among members of FASB and IASB’s Joint Transition Resource Group to determine whether the board should issue new guidance. Those include questions around how to apply the new standard to licensing agreements, when revenue should be recognized on a gross versus net basis, and how to determine performance obligations. “When the research is done, the staff will bring us potential agenda requests,” he said. The time line on that research and potential rule-making is not clear, he said, but the board hopes to see results from the staff research in the first quarter of 2015.
