News highlights for April 2013

The AICPA Accounting and Review Services Committee (ARSC) voted to withdraw its compilation and association exposure draft in response to comment letters from stakeholders.

The compilation proposal would have revised the applicability of the compilation standard but would have retained the compilation service as an attest service.

The association proposal addressed the accountant’s responsibilities when a member is associated with financial statements that have not been compiled, reviewed, or audited. The ED proposed that certain legends, notations, or disclaimer language would be placed on or with the financial statements when the accountant prepares financial statements but has not compiled, reviewed, or audited the financial statements.

ARSC Chairman Michael Brand said in a statement that, after reviewing the 92 comment letters ARSC received on the proposed standards, “two primary concerns came through very clearly.”

Brand said the first concern reflected the view that the compilation service should be positioned as a nonattest service consistent with the positioning of preparation of financial statements. The second concern was confusion between the two proposed standards and the views of many respondents that they needed to be combined and simplified.

ARSC will immediately begin work on a proposal that will respond to these major concerns. A new ED is expected to be issued in late spring or early summer.

The withdrawal of this ED does not affect the review ED that is outstanding, with comments due April 26. The review ED is available at tinyurl.com/a2zh7ky.