GASB Proposing Deferral of the Lease and Other Standards

Published April 23, 2020

To provide relief to State and Local governments as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued an exposure draft to delay the implementation of certain GASB statements and implementation guides due to be implemented for fiscal years 2019 and later. This exposure draft would postpone the effective dates by one year. 

The exposure draft includes many newly issued standards; most notably GASB Statements No. 87, Leases and No. 84, Fiduciary Activities and the related implementation guides. Comments are accepted through April 30, and the board expects to issue a final statement on May 8, 2020. 

GASB did not propose postponing Statement No. 93 or Statement No. 94, Public-Private and Public-Public Partnerships and Availability Payment Arrangements, because the pandemic was factored into the effective dates of those pronouncements.

GASB developed an emergency “toolbox” intended to be a quick reference guide to assist with the identification of GASB standards that may be relevant based on the current COVID-19 circumstances.  The toolbox addresses items such as capital asset impairment, fair value measurement, and risk-finance and insurance related considerations for public entity risk pools.