Here’s where the accounting officials come in. Nearly 50 years ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission gave responsibility for writing and updating its “generally accepted accounting principles,” which determine how quarterly and annual profits are calculated, to the Financial Accounting Standards Board, a private organization funded by corporations and overseen by a nonprofit group, the Financial Accounting Foundation.
FASB — pronounced “fazbie” — is run by a seven-member board of accountants and professional investors. Under the new tax regime, one way to tweak corporate America’s tax bill would be to get FASB to rewrite how companies calculate their profits, which is squishier than you might think.
Source: Meet the accountants who may become the new power brokers of taxes. – The New York Times
