I attended the AICPA National Conference for Banks and Savings Institutions last month from September 9-11. Again this year, much, but not all, of the discussion was around CECL. However, there were other topics such as economic forecasts, taxation and regulatory updates.
It happened so quickly, few people may have even been aware of the proposed retirement planning law changes that were slated to occur at the start of 2020. The “It” is a significant retirement savings bill that was passed by the House of Representatives earlier in May and was on track to become permanent tax law during the summer. The name of the proposed legislation is the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019, affectionately referred to as the SECURE Act.
Through Rev. Proc. 2019-32, the IRS recently offered certain partnerships a one-time (and rapidly expiring) ability to make corrections to partnership tax returns (Forms 1065) and related Schedules K-1. This concession lets them make such adjustments in the classic, familiar fashion, rather than following the newly-applicable partnership audit rules. In turn, this allows the adjustments to potentially be taxed at lower rates and impact partners in a manner consistent with the unadjusted results. For 2018 calendar-year filers, action will be needed by September 16, 2019.
As of mid-July, Massachusetts was the only U.S. state that had not yet passed a formal operating budget for the 2020 fiscal year, which began on July 1. The FY 2020 budget was finally signed by Governor Baker (R) on July 31, 2019.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) voted on Wednesday to propose an extension of the deadline for the implementation of the Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL) methodology for the majority of financial institutions. Under the proposal, the effective date for public business entities that are not SEC filers would be pushed back from January 1, 2021 to January 1, 2023, and the effective date for non-public business entities that are not SEC filers would be pushed back from January 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023.
When significant new revenue recognition and lease accounting and reporting standards were issued a few years back, implementation dates for private companies and not-for-profit entities seemed a long way into the future. Time has passed quickly, and preparing for these pronouncements should be a top priority. Below are 10 things your organization should be considering or performing now to prepare for the pronouncements to ensure no surprises, and a seamless implementation of these complex new accounting standards.
On July 1, 2019, the Taxpayer First Act (H.R. 3151) (the Act) was enacted.