US Accounting Board to Tackle Knotty Debt and Equity Guidance

Rulewriters agreed to help companies better distinguish liabilities from equity in their financial reports after accounting groups said the current rules are overly complex.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board unanimously voted Wednesday to add a project to its technical agenda focusing on improving guidance in an area of the rulebook critiqued during last year’s agenda outreach as leading to inconsistent, confusing financial reporting. The tailored effort to clarify financial instruments guidance joins a suite of new projects on the board’s to-do list following the wave of public input.

Liabilities and equity guidance remains “internally inconsistent” and “conceptually flawed,” board member ...