Retailers' 'Borderline Misleading' Accounting Targeted by SEC

Matt Franker was quoted by Bloomberg Tax regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission turning its focus to businesses and raising questions about alternative accounting measures and asking them to justify their use.

Several companies have drawn the SEC’s attention for excluding expenses to open new stores or close old ones from supplemental earnings metrics that don’t follow U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. “The market is on notice,” Matt said.

“The SEC and staff really think that some of these measures are borderline misleading or actually misleading,” he expressed.