You are aware that GAAP require expenditures for research and development to be charged to expense when

Question:

You are aware that require expenditures for research and development to be charged to expense when incurred. This implies that such expenditures do not provide any benefit to future accounting periods. Do research and development expenditures have future economic benefit? If not, why not? If so, why might require companies to account for them as if they did not?

GAAP
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is the accounting standard adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). While the SEC previously stated that it intends to move from U.S. GAAP to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the...