Essential insights into Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), financial statement preparation, and professional bookkeeping. Discover guides for maintaining financial transparency and business health.
When does the SEC require pro forma financial information? Regulation S-X Article 11 requires it for significant business acquisitions, dispositions, spinoffs, and other transactions where the illustration would be material to investors. The 2020 amendments reorganized pro forma financial information around three adjustment categories, and the columnar totals now stop at transaction accounting and autonomous…
Can a stablecoin be a cash equivalent under US GAAP? FASB’s August 2026 proposed Accounting Standards Update under Topic 230 says yes — but only when three attributes line up. The Master Glossary definition does not change. Stablecoin cash equivalents and a new disclosure of the significant components of cash equivalents are now on the…
What should a Korean company check before choosing a US CPA firm? Check five things: which state licenses the CPA and whether the license is active, whether the firm also handles the Korea-side work (overseas direct investment reporting and the parent’s reporting package), whether the same team carries the work from setup into monthly books…
What is FPI status, and does your company qualify? Foreign Private Issuer status is an SEC classification in Rule 405 and Rule 3b-4 that lets a qualifying non-US company report on Form 20-F, skip Form 10-Q, and use IFRS without a US GAAP reconciliation. A June 2025 SEC concept release may change the eligibility rules…
Can you capitalize AI software costs under US GAAP? Sometimes. US GAAP has no AI-specific rule — the existing internal-use software guidance in ASC 350-40 still controls. If AI software costs are project-specific, measurable, and incurred after the application development stage begins, they may be capitalized. General-purpose AI subscriptions are expensed. Every quarter our Los…
How does ASU 2026-03 change investment company fair value? It requires an investment company to apply a discount when a contractual sale restriction prevents it from selling an equity security on the measurement date. The amendment is scoped to investment companies and to equity securities only, is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15,…
What is a Korean IFRS reporting package, and why does your parent need one every month? A Korean IFRS reporting package — often written K-IFRS reporting package — is the standardized monthly submission a US subsidiary sends its Korean parent so the parent can consolidate the subsidiary’s results under Korean IFRS (K-IFRS). It contains a…
Are IFRS 15 and ASC 606 still converged? Substantially, yes — but the details still shift the timing and amount of revenue. This IFRS 15 vs ASC 606 guide walks through ten differences that change what dual reporters book and disclose, grounded in the standards themselves rather than firm commentary. The joint issuance of IFRS…
What is a foreign private issuer under SEC rules? A foreign private issuer is a non-US company that meets the SEC’s Rule 405 / Rule 3b-4 tests — 50% or less of voting securities held by US residents, or, if more, none of the US-contacts factors triggered. FPIs use Form 20-F and Form F-1, may…
Does the California cybersecurity audit rule apply to my business? A California business is in scope if it either earned at least 50% of its revenue from selling or sharing personal information, or exceeded roughly $26.625 million in annual gross revenue and processed the personal information of at least 250,000 California consumers or households (or…
Does ASU 2026-03 change fair value sale restrictions for investment funds? Yes — but only for investment companies within the scope of Topic 946. From adoption, those funds must incorporate a discount for contractual sale restrictions when measuring the fair value of an equity security, and disclose the size of that discount. Effective for annual…
Which FASB standards take effect in 2026? The largest calendar-year first-effective ASUs are 2023-09 (income tax disclosures, private companies), 2024-04 (induced conversions of convertible debt, all entities), 2025-05 (AR credit losses practical expedient, PCC), and 2024-01 (profits interest awards, private companies). This post is a plain-English guide to the FASB effective dates 2026 that will…
What is SEC Regulation Crypto Assets, and does it change how I raise capital or report digital assets? The SEC proposed a new exempt-offering framework for crypto asset investment contracts on August 12, 2026, and FASB the same day proposed clarifying when certain digital assets — including some stablecoins — count as cash equivalents. Both…
Bookkeeping records the past and tax work reports it. CFO work changes what happens next, and complexity, not revenue, is what makes it worth paying for.
What did the OBBBA actually change for my nonprofit? Quite a lot. The OBBBA nonprofit tax rules created a new charitable deduction for non-itemizers, added floors that shrink deductions for high-income and corporate donors, expanded the §4960 excise on high pay, and set a tiered endowment tax for large private colleges. The One Big Beautiful…
Which new IFRS standards must I apply for a 30 June 2026 reporting date? Several amendments are mandatory now — including the IAS 21 lack-of-exchangeability rules, the IFRS 9 & IFRS 7 classification and measurement amendments, and Annual Improvements Volume 11 — while IFRS 18, IFRS 19, and IFRS 20 remain optional until 2027. Applying…
What changed for California employers on July 1, 2026? A stack of rules landed on the same day. California minimum wage 2026 updates cover healthcare workers, San Diego hospitality staff, and more than a dozen city and county rates — plus new California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) rules that will bite by 2027. If you…
Who can still elect the IAS 28 fair value option after the IASB’s 2026 amendments? The updated IAS 28 fair value option extends the FVTPL election beyond classic investment funds to any entity whose main business is investing in associates, joint ventures, unconsolidated subsidiaries, cash and cash equivalents, or other independently-returning assets — aligned to…
Who can measure associates and joint ventures at fair value under IFRS? The IAS 28 fair value option is an exemption from the equity method — and on 26 June 2026 the IASB issued narrow amendments that finally pin down which entities qualify, using the ‘specified main business activities’ concept from IFRS 18. If your…
What is the FASB changing about hedge accounting in 2026? On June 17, 2026, the FASB issued a proposed hedge accounting update to Topic 815 with three targeted changes: hedging interest rate risk on held-to-maturity securities, using any tenor of SOFR, and expanding eligible net investment hedging instruments. Comments are due August 17, 2026. If…
Do private companies have to change their income tax disclosures? Yes — in part. FASB ASU 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures, requires all entities to disclose income taxes paid (net of refunds) by federal, state, and foreign jurisdiction — and by any individual jurisdiction equal to or greater than 5%…
What is the SEC’s proposed filer status overhaul? On May 19, 2026, the SEC proposed collapsing public-company reporting into two categories — large accelerated filers (LAFs) and nonaccelerated filers (NAFs) — raising the LAF public float threshold to $2 billion and exempting NAFs from ICFR auditor attestation. If you advise public companies, the SEC filer…
How does FASB ASU 2025-06 change accounting for internal-use software? The FASB issued ASU 2025-06, Intangibles—Goodwill and Other—Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Targeted Improvements, to modernize software cost guidance written in 1998 for today’s agile development. The biggest change: it ELIMINATES the old project-stage (waterfall) model for deciding when to start capitalizing costs. Instead, capitalization begins…
Is Congress about to change how crypto is taxed? Not yet — but it’s actively working on it. In June 2026, the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on a slate of digital-asset tax bills aimed at fixing gaps in how cryptocurrency is taxed. The proposals include: a de minimis exception so small…
What were the key international tax developments in early-to-mid June 2026? The OECD pushed forward on the global minimum tax (Pillar Two) — releasing practical fixes to the GloBE Information Return (GIR) XML schema for first filings, an updated 2026 consolidated commentary, and new transfer-pricing guidance on intragroup services. In the EU, the Court of…
What changed in state and local tax in early-to-mid June 2026? A busy stretch: the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Florida’s challenge to California’s single-sales-factor apportionment; New York enacted a budget that extends its top corporate rate, decouples from some OBBBA provisions, and adds a “pied-à-terre” surcharge; Texas adopted cost-of-goods-sold rule changes for franchise…
What is IFRS 20, and who does it affect? The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued IFRS 20, Regulatory Assets and Regulatory Liabilities — a new IFRS Accounting Standard for companies subject to a specific type of rate regulation (utilities that supply electricity, water, and gas, where a regulator controls how much they can charge…
How do you account for carbon credits and emission allowances under U.S. GAAP now? On May 19, 2026, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2026-02, creating a brand-new Codification Topic — ASC 818, Environmental Credits and Environmental Credit Obligations. Until now, U.S. GAAP had no specific guidance for carbon offsets, renewable energy certificates (RECs),…
When does an SEC registrant have to file financial statements for a business it acquired? Under SEC Regulation S-X Rule 3-05, a registrant (including a company doing an IPO) must file separate pre-acquisition financial statements of a “significant” acquired or to-be-acquired business — with a parallel rule (3-14) for significant real estate operations. Significance is…
How can summer activities affect your next tax return? Several common summer events have tax consequences worth handling now, per the IRS: (1) summer DAY CAMP costs may count toward the Child and Dependent Care Credit; (2) getting MARRIED means reporting any name change to the Social Security Administration and any address change to USPS,…
