The proposals are contained in IPSASB Exposure Draft 55 Improvements to IPSASs 2014 and would see amendments made to four IPSASs:

• IPSAS 1, Presentation of Financial Statements - clarification of comparative information requirements
• IPSAS 17, Property, Plant and Equipment - classification of servicing equipment, clarification of the revaluation methodology, acceptable methods of depreciating assets
• IPSAS 28, Financial Instruments: Presentation - tax effects of distributions to holders of equity instruments
• IPSAS 31, Intangible Assets - clarification of the revaluation methodology, clarification of acceptable methods of amortising assets.

The exposure draft contains an appendix which outlines all of the items the IPSASB considered including in the document, and the rationale as to why changes equivalent to those made by the IASB in recent narrow scope amendment projects have not been proposed by the IPSASB. Reasons include where:

• IASB amendments relate to IFRSs without an equivalent IPSAS, e.g. first-time adoption, business combinations , share-based payments and interim financial reporting (in some cases, the IPSASB has projects underway in these topic areas)
• the existing IPSAS is not fully converged with IFRSs, e.g. borrowing costs, related parties, employee benefits, segment reporting, financial instruments
• minor amendments are not considered relevant.

The exposure draft does not indicate a proposed effective date for the amendments if they are finalised. The comment period on the exposure draft closes on 30 September 2014. Click for access to the exposure draft (link to the IFAC website).