Response to the Financial Accounting Standards Board's and the International Accounting Standard Board's Joint Discussion Paper Entitled, 'Preliminary Views on Financial Statement Presentation'

Abstract

The Financial Accounting Standards Board's (FASB's) and the International Accounting Standard Board's (IASB's) issued a joint Discussion Paper entitled, Preliminary Views on Financial Statement Presentation. The Boards are seeking comments on whether their proposed model for financial statement presentation would improve the usefulness of the financial statement information for financial decision makers. This paper sets forth the AAA's Financial Accounting Standards Committee's summary comments as well as responses to several of the Boards' specific objectives and principles-related questions. Overall, we believe that the model has several appealing qualities, but also has several potential problems. Many of the problems that we discuss related to potential learning impediments for users to adapt to the new presentation format.