Extraordinary change in GAAP: No more extraordinary items

FASB has issued ASU 2015-01, Income Statement – Extraordinary and Unusual Items (Subtopic 225-20) – Simplifying Income Statement Presentation by Eliminating the Concept of Extraordinary Items. This eliminates the extraordinary item treatment we have known since we were in college.

The requirement to disclose unusual or infrequent items remains.

Implementation

Effective date annual periods ending after December 15, 2015. For most organizations, that will be for fiscal years ending December 31, 2016.

Early implementation is allowed.

Implementation may be with either prospective or retrospective application.

This is part of the simplification effort of FASB to pare back some of the complexity. Seems like a good step to me.

Journal of Accountancy has an article with more background: No more extraordinary items: FASB simplifies GAAP.

The original ASU is linked above.

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