Comments by the Auditing Standards Committee of the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association on FASB Exposure Draft of Proposed Accounting Standard Update: Notes to Financial Statements (Topic 235): Assessing Whether Disclosures Are Material

On September 24, 2015 the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) solicited public comments on a proposed Accounting Standards Update of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification. The stated objective is to improve the effectiveness of footnote disclosures to financial statement users. The focus of the Update is to clarify the way materiality should be considered when assessing requirements for providing information in the notes. The comment period ended on December 8, 2015. This commentary summarizes the contributors' views on these amendments. Data Availability: The exposure draft of Proposed Accounting Standard Update: Notes to Financial Statements (Topic 235): Assessing Whether Disclosures Are Material is available at: http://www.fasb.org/cs/ContentServer?c= Document_C&pagename=FASB%2FDocument_C%2FDocumentPage&cid=1176166402325