Navigating FASB's New Pushdown Rules for Acquired Entities

Description

FASB ASU 2014-17, Pushdown Accounting became effective on November 18, 2014. On February 4, 2015, the FASB issued long-awaited guidance on the use of pushdown accounting on an acquired entity. The previous literature was limited in who was eligible to use pushdown accounting and for certain deals prevented any flexibility in its use, especially in situations where change of control was achieved by acquiring less than 80% ownership in an acquired entity. The new standard provides a newly acquired company with a greater degree of flexibility in electing whether to apply or not to apply pushdown accounting, irrespective of how much of the ownership has changed hands, which may increase the degree of inconsistency in financial statements presentation across companies.

The new standard details when a company may use pushdown accounting. While the statement provides some bright-line rules for adopting pushdown accounting, the new guidance provides some room for accountants and executives to exercise judgment as to whether to change accounting principles and adopt pushdown accounting. The new standard leaves it to the newly acquired company to decide whether to use or not to use pushdown accounting upon each change-in-control event based on its own unique set of circumstances. It also provides guidance on how to apply pushdown accounting in periods subsequent to the period when change-in-control happened should the company choose to do so in subsequent periods.

Listen as our expert panel provides a detailed roadmap to what accounting professionals and executives need to understand in determining whether, and how, to adopt pushdown accounting on acquired entity’s financial statements.