Accounting Firms Back Stock Option Expensing

The debate over expensing U.S. employee stock options intensified this week with top accounting firms backing the requirement and asking the U.S. government not to get in the way.

The Big Four accounting firms, Ernst & Young, Price WaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche and KPMG, along with Grant Thornton, have in the last two days voiced opposition to two bills in Congress that call for the expensing of options granted only to a firm’s top five executives instead of expensing them across the board.

In letters Wednesday to Reps. Richard Baker (R-La.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, and Paul E. Kanjorski (D-Pa.), a ranking member of the committee, the Big Four firms urged Congress to preserve the independence of the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

The letters urged Congress to “avoid legislation that would have the effect of restricting the FASB’s ability to establish accounting standards.”

The board is widely expected to recommend compulsory expensing of stock options by U.S. companies this month. This has been strongly opposed by many firms on grounds that it would dilute earnings.