In the last couple of years, I have witnessed several of my private company clients reorganize their operations, through either a merger, an acquisition or a significant management member buyout. While such situations provide a great stage for all to display their accounting chops, they also present us an opportunity to consult with our clients and help them avoid an accounting faux pas or burdensome and unnecessary disclosures caused by an inadvertent accounting election. So, in no specific order, I thought I would summarize some of the unique accounting issues I’ve encountered in such situations and how to navigate them: (more…)
Debt Issuance Costs – Accounting Presentation Rules Demystified
“Debt issuance costs” are costs incurred that would not have been incurred had not an entity procured a new debt instrument – in other words, incremental costs directly related to the new financing. The FASB Accounting Standards Codification (ASC), interestingly, does not define “debt issuance costs”, although the FASB issued two Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs) in 2015 related to presentation of debt issuance costs, with effective dates for nonpublic companies for financial statements covering fiscal years ended in December 2016 or later. (more…)