Conformance of Cost Accounting Standards to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for Cost Accounting Standards 404, 408, 409, and 411
Key claim: OMB’s Cost Accounting Standards Board is rescinding CAS 408 and 411 entirely and rescinding most provisions of CAS 404 and 409 to conform with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, with remaining content relocated within the CFR.
Abstract
(Rule · Management and Budget Office, Federal Procurement Policy Office) The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Cost Accounting Standards Board (the Board), is publishing a final rule wholly rescinding Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) 408 and 411 and rescinding most provisions of CAS 404 and 409 to conform to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The remaining content from CAS 404 and 409 is transferred to a different location within the Code of Federal Regulations. This final rule follows issuance of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).
Why this matters
Cost Accounting Standards govern how large federal contractors measure, assign, and allocate costs on government contracts, and duplicative CAS rules that predated modern GAAP have long been a compliance overhead. Rescinding CAS 408 and 411 and paring back CAS 404 and 409 reduces the parallel accounting universe contractors must maintain, with fiscal implications for contractor cost pools, disclosure statements, and audit scope while leaving core allowability and allocability principles under the FAR and DFARS intact.