IASB Begins Long Battle on Options Accounting

The International Accounting Standards Board has begun what promise to be long deliberations on developing standards for stock options accounting. At its first meetings, members of the Board seemed to concur that the measurement date for recording a compensation charge should be the date of grant. That concept has provoked the ire of numerous industry groups, some of whom have threatened to seek legislation to override any proposed standards that would require that fixed options show up as a charge to income.