Both the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board issued exposure drafts on August 7, 2008, with amendments to their standards related to earnings per share.

The FASB issued a revised ED of a proposed Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS), ED No. 1240-100, Earnings per Share? an amendment of FASB SFAS No. 128, and the IASB released an ED with proposed amendments to International Accounting Standard (IAS) 33, Earnings per Share.

Comments about both EDs are due on December 5.

The standards seek to improve financial reporting by clarifying and simplifying the method of calculating EPS, while promoting the international convergence of accounting standards by eliminating major differences that currently exist between SFAS No. 128, Earnings per Share, and IAS 33.

The proposals in the ED would achieve convergence by: ? Establishing a principle to determine which instruments are included in the calculation of basic EPS; ? Clarifying the treatment of contracts that involve the entity receiving its own ordinary shares for cash or other financial assets; ? Clarifying that the principles for contracts to repurchase an entity?s own shares for cash or other financial assets should also apply to mandatorily redeemable ordinary shares; and ? Amending the calculation of diluted EPS for participating instruments and two-class ordinary shares.

The Boards are to set the effective dates for the proposed amendments when they approve final amendments to the standards.