The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is providing accountants, financial statement preparers, investors and other stakeholders an opportunity to provide feedback on whether the standard-setting board should pursue a project on intangibles.
An invitation to comment (ITC) was issued on Dec. 19 as part of the FASB’s research project on the accounting for and disclosure of intangibles. The ITC is intended to explore ways to improve this area of financial reporting, which includes the accounting for acquired and internally developed intangibles.
An ITC is a staff document prepared at the direction of the FASB chair in which the board doesn’t express any preliminary views. Responses to the questions in this ITC will help inform the board as it considers whether to add a project to its technical agenda on intangibles.
The ITC uses the term “intangibles” to include both (1) intangibles recognized as assets in the financial statements, and (2) intangibles and related costs not recognized as assets in the financial statements.
Specifically, the FASB would like to receive views on the following:
- Whether there is a pervasive need to improve GAAP related to the accounting for and disclosure of intangibles (that is, is there a case for change).
- What intangibles, or groups of intangibles, the FASB should consider addressing.
- What potential solution(s) the FASB should consider—including whether the potential solution or solutions are narrow for a specific intangible or could be applied broadly to a group of intangibles—and the expected benefits and expected costs of the potential solution(s).
- Whether different accounting for intangibles should exist depending on how the asset is obtained (internally developed, acquired in a business combination, or acquired in an asset acquisition).
- What information about intangibles an investor utilizes (or would utilize) for its analysis and how that information influences the investor’s capital allocation decisions.
Stakeholders are asked to review and provide comments on the ITC by May 30, 2025.
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