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"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men (women) say. I just watch what they do."-- Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American industrialist 

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If you are trying to get more vitamin C in your diet, one cup of papaya cubes supplies more than 100% of your daily requirement. Additionaly, it includes a large dose of potassium and folate. Papayas are also a good source of vitamins A and E which are powerful antioxidants that protect against heart disease and colon cancer.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) recently issued guidance, FASB Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-07 / Applying Variable Interest Entities Guidance to Common Control Leasing Arrangements, intended to improve private company financial reporting regarding certain common control leasing arrangements. The guidance was based on a consensus reached by the Private Company Council (PCC).

Essentially it states that private companies following Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are permitted to elect not to consolidate the financial statements of certain variable interest entities (VIEs) that lease property to them in some cases. It could also apply in scenarios where an owner of a private company is also an owner of a second business entity that leases property to the company.

While current U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), require a company to consolidate the financial statements of entities in which it has a controlling financial interest, the new guidance allows a private company to elect-when certain conditions exist-not to apply VIE guidance to a lessor under common control. The private company would instead make certain disclosures about the lessor and the leasing arrangement. Therefore, useful lessor-related information could be provided to financial statement users through these disclosures, while reducing costs and complexity for private company lessees that apply VIE guidance.

According to this Update, a private company lessee could elect not to apply VIE guidance to a lessor when:

a. The private company lessee and the lessor are under common control,
b. The private company lessee has a leasing arrangement with the lessor,
c. Substantially all of the activity between the private company lessee and the lessor is related to the leasing activities (including supporting leasing activities) between those two companies, and
d. If the private company lessee explicitly guarantees or provides collateral for any obligation of the lessor related to the asset leased by the private company, then the principal amount of the obligation at inception does not exceed the value of the asset leased by the private company from the lessor.

If elected, disclosure is required in the notes to the financial statements. This guidance should be applied retrospectively to all periods presented, and is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2014, and interim periods within annual periods beginning after December 15, 2015. Early application is permitted for all financial statements that have not yet been made available for issuance.

Additional information on this guidance can be found by reviewing a video, a FASB in Focus summary document and/or consulting with your Bernard Robinson & Company advisor in regard to your unique situation.

With tax reform dropping down the priority list for 2014, the focus has turned to expired tax breaks. While many tax credits and write-offs important to individuals and businesses lapsed after 2013, some key breaks will definitely be revived, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2014 for individuals and businesses. These include:

Individuals:

• Those 70 1/2 and older will be allowed direct distributions of up to $100,000 annually from their IRAs to charity.
• Debtors will be permitted to exclude up to $2 million of forgiven debt on their primary homes.
• Class supplies deductions for teachers, private mortgage insurance and college tuition will be allowed again.
• An election to write off state and local sales taxes instead of state income taxes will be revived. 

Businesses:

• 50% bonus depreciation will be allowed.
• An allowance to expense up to $500,000 of assets and the R&D credit will be permitted.
• 15-year write-offs for renovations of restaurants, retail stores, and landlord improvements for retail tenants will come back.

Additionally, reinstated provisions are expected to be modified a bit, such as:

• More energy savings will be required to get the deduction for energy-efficient buildings.
• Small start-up companies with no income tax liability will be permitted to claim a credit for their R&D costs (which will offset their payroll tax liability).

Some enforcement-related restrictions are expected too, such as:

• Preparers of returns claiming the child tax credit will have extra work to do. The IRS will want more documentation of the efforts tax preparers took to determine that their clients' claims for the child credit were valid or face a $500 penalty.
• The IRS will receive 100% of Medicare payments to doctors who owe tax.

The Senate wants to revive the expired tax breaks within a few weeks, but the House is moving slower. Therefore, it does not look like the breaks will be reinstated until late this year, retroactive to Jan. 1. They will likely be in effect over a two-year period, until the end of 2015.