|
 |
Stock Options: FASB Proposes Three Methods Aug. 16, 2002 The Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed three alternatives for accounting for stock options that companies would be able to choose among. The existing approach and first choice is to expense options awarded in the fiscal year in which they decided to begin expensing options. The second approach would allow companies to count both new grants and unvested options issued since the beginning of the fiscal year. The third method would give companies the choice to retroactively restate three years of prior statements to reflect options granted over those years. Also, the Board proposed requiring companies to report stock options quarterly to the Securities and Exchange Commission, as opposed to the current standard that companies disclose stock options in their annual reports. FASB rejected a call to move the disclosure ahead in the report, voting instead to leave it in the footnotes. Aggressive accounting practices and corporate scandals impelled a call for more transparent financial statements, prompting the Board to reconsider how companies account for stock options. The FASB said earlier this month it "applauds" companies that are now looking to follow the lead of Coca-Cola and others. Costco, Wal-Mart and SunTrust are among the most recent companies to announce they will expense stock options. A formal outline of the requirements is expected from FASB in October. |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
