<p>At its June 25, 2008, weekly meeting, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is scheduled to discuss the definition of a liability in its Conceptual Framework Project, according to Action Alert No. 08-25.

<p>The Board plans to consider various issues related to the definition of a liability, as part of its review of the Conceptual Framework Project, which is a joint projected between the FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The issues include when a statute gives rise to liability and how to deal with uncertainty about the existence of a liability.

<p>The Board also plans to discuss various examples, in order to test the preliminary definition of a liability, which is currently proposed as follows: “A liability is a present economic obligation of the entity as a result of past [transactions or other] events from which future economic benefits are expected to flow from the entity.”

<p>The Board also plans to consider ratification of the following Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) consensuses:

• EITF No. 07-5, “Determining Whether an Instrument (or Embedded Feature) Is Indexed to an Entity's Own Stock;”
• EITF No. 08-3, “Accounting by Lessees for Nonrefundable Maintenance Deposits,” which requires that all nonrefundable maintenance deposits should be accounted for as a deposit. When the underlying maintenance is performed, the deposit is expensed or capitalized in accordance with the lessee’s maintenance accounting policy;
• EITF Issue No. 08-4, “Transition Guidance for Conforming Changes to EITF Issue No. 98-5, Accounting for Convertible Securities with Beneficial Conversion Features or Contingently Adjustable Conversion Ratios.” The changes in question result from EITF Issue No. 00-27, "Application of Issue No. 98-5 to Certain Convertible Instruments," and the issuance of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 150, Accounting for Certain Financial Liabilities with Characteristics of both Liabilities and Equity; and
• EITF Issue No. 08-5, “Issuer's Accounting for Liabilities Measured at Fair Value with a Third-Party Guarantee,” which addresses the question of whether an issuer of debt with a third-party guarantee that is inseparable from the debt instrument should treat the debt and the guarantee as one unit of accounting when the measurement attribute for that debt is fair value.

<p>The Board last met on June 18.