In its quest to clarify how to define “business” for the sake of accounting rules, the Financial Accounting Standards Board is wading into how to account for partial sales of nonfinancial assets.
FASB is trying to help sort out when transactions involving in-substance nonfinancial assets should be accounted for as an acquisition or disposal of a business or the acquisition or disposal of nonfinancial assets. The board has already issued a proposal on how to define a business for purposes of applying business combination rules, and it continues to accept comments through Jan. 22.
