Technical plan

Date recorded:

The IASB discussed the updated status of the Board's technical plan (detailed draft chart omitted from the observer notes).

The following items were noted:

 

Business Combinations II

The Board expects the final standard on Business Combinations to be issued in the third quarter of 2007, even though one Board member openly reiterated his fervent disagreement with the intended approach, followed by the results of Phase B of the Financial Statements presentation project. One Board member noted that due to the staffing priority assigned to the Business Combinations project, other important Board projects have languished. But he expressed the Board's intention to rectify this situation in the future, once the Business Combinations project is finalised. It was suggested to add the Annual Improvements project to the planning grid, which met with sympathy from most Board members.

 

Government grants

Several Board members indicated a desire to speed up the project on Government Grants, especially on emissions trading, in light of present activities in the United States. Prioritising the Income Taxes project after the finalisation of the Business Combination standard was also advocated and Board members advised that the language of a draft should be agreed with the FASB before a review by the IASB.

 

Liabilities

The IASB staff advised that they intend to push forward the Liabilities project and bring their conclusions to date to the Board at the July meeting. Regarding the Conceptual Framework project, the Board agreed this should be accelerated and acknowledged that there were open issues on the definitions, particularly on the definition of an asset, which needed to be resolved quickly. The staff promised to do further research, both on the asset definition and on the issue of stewardship. Both topics would be brought back to the Board at the July meeting.

 

Other

Some Board members were of the view that major progress needed to be made on the issues presently outstanding before taking any new issues on the agenda.

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