AASB update for December 2013

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20 Dec 2013

A summary of developments related to the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) during the month of December 2013. Includes highlights from the December AASB meeting, new AASB appointments, and new and revised pronouncements.

December AASB meeting highlights

The AASB met at its offices in Melbourne on 11-12 December 2013. Highlights from the meeting include:

  • Financial instruments. The AASB tentatively decided to issue amendments to AASB 9 Financial Instruments (equivalent to IFRS 9 Financial Instruments) to incorporate the recent hedge accounting and other amendments made by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). For legislative reasons, the amendments will be mandatorily effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2017, which is the earliest date that the IASB has tentatively decided as the effective date of IFRS 9*.
  • Materiality. The AASB has decided to reissue AASB 1031 Materiality as a 'referencing Standard' (without substantive content) until such time as references to AASB 1031 are removed from other Australian Accounting Standards due to other amendments, at which time it will be fully withdrawn.
  • Disclosure. The AASB is to express concern to the IASB about its decision that it is not necessary to clarify the requirements of IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements relating to going concern disclosures.
  • Superannuation entities. The AASB approved a draft Standard for publishing on the AASB's website for a 60 day comment period. The draft standard (link to AASB website) was published on 20 December 2013. Once finalised, the new Standard will replace AAS 25 Financial Reporting by Superannuation Plans, and is expected to apply to annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 July 2016.

* The AASB subsequently announced the making of amending Standard AASB 2013-9 Amendments to Australian Accounting Standards – Conceptual Framework, Materiality and Financial Instruments on 23 December 2013. AASB 2013-9 incorporates the IASB’s Standard IFRS 9 Financial Instruments (Hedge Accounting and amendments to IFRS 9, IFRS 7 and IAS 39).

The next meeting of the AASB will be held on 13 February 2014. Click for AASB Action Alert (link to AASB website), which contains full details of the matters discussed at the meeting.

New AASB appointments

The Australian Financial Reporting Council has announced the following appointments to the AASB effective from 1 January 2014:

  • Ms Regina Fikkers, Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers
  • Mr Steve Mitsas, Director, Financial Reporting at the Department of Treasury and Finance, Victoria
  • Ms Taryn Rulton, Chief Financial Officer at Ambulance Victoria
  • Mr Marc Smit, Head of Accounting Policy at NAB
  • Professor Ann Tarca, The University of Western Australia.

The new members replace retiring members Mr Victor Clarke, Professor Jayne Godfrey, Ms. Liane Papaelias, Dr. Roger Sexton and Mr Robert Williams. In addition, Ms Anna Crawford (Leader of Deloitte Australia's IFRS Centre of Excellence) has been reappointed.

Click for announcement (link to AASB website).

New and revised pronouncements

The AASB released the following pronouncements during December (links to AASB website):

  • ED 246 Equity Method in Separate Financial Statements (comments to the AASB close on 24 January 2014)
  • ED 247 Annual Improvements to IFRSs 2012—2014 Cycle (comments to the AASB close on 27 February 2014)
  • Draft AASB 105X Superannuation Entities (fatal flaw comments close on 28 February 2014)
  • The fourth and final batch of new compiled versions (link to AASB website) of Standards and Interpretations that apply to annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2013.

Update: As noted above, on 23 December 2013 the AASB announced the making of amending Standard AASB 2013-9 Amendments to Australian Accounting Standards – Conceptual Framework, Materiality and Financial Instruments.

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