Updating the "Subsequent Events" Audit Requirement

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) just issued FASB Statement 165 which adjusts requirements for subsequent event reporting. A new standard of "available to be issued" sets the final date of required consideration (the balance sheet date starts the "subsequent event" period). This "available" date (or use of the present audit report date) is a required disclosure. As was true prior to FASB Statement 165, some items will get note disclosure while other events will need financial statement recognition. FASB expects minimal impact of the statement, which applies to financials (including interim statements) issued after June 15.

Perhaps there is some value in a brief "subsequent events' review in interim statements (or even financial forecasts as counterintuitive as this sounds) but it is hard to see the need for an FASB statement on annual reports just to disclose end date of subsequent events, especially since the assumed date prior to this statement was the audit report date. In my "for what its worth" opinion, FASB 165 should have gone beyond its present scope and clarified and adjusted what was to be included in subsequent events and how to present these events or been issued as an interpretation.