On Dec. 19, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) published an Invitation to Comment (ITC) offering stakeholders the chance to give their feedback on whether the regulator should pursue a project on intangibles. Comments on the ITC are due by May 30, 2025.
The issuance of the ITC forms part of the FASB’s research project regarding the accounting for and disclosure of intangibles. The ITC is meant to examine ways to enhance this area of financial reporting that includes the accounting for acquired and internally developed intangibles. An ITC is a staff document that is prepared at the direction of the FASB chair where the FASB does not express any preliminary views. Responses to the questions in this ITC will assist in informing the FASB as it considers whether to add a project to its technical agenda on intangibles.
According to the FASB, the ITC uses the term intangibles to cover both intangibles that recognized as assets in the financial statements and intangibles and related costs not recognized as assets in the financial statements.
Specifically, the FASB would like to understand the following:
• Whether there is a pervasive necessity to enhance generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) related to the accounting for and disclosure of intangibles (that is, is there a case for change)
• What intangibles, or groups of intangibles, the regulator must consider addressing
• What possible solution(s) the FASB should consider—including whether the possible solution or solutions are narrow for a specific intangible or could be applied broadly to a group of intangibles—and the expected benefits and costs of the possible solution(s)
• Whether different accounting for intangibles should exist depending on how the asset is obtained (internally developed, acquired in a business combination, or acquired in an asset acquisition)
• What information about intangibles an investor utilizes (or would utilize) for its analysis and how that information influences the investor’s capital allocation decisions.