Background

The purpose of this session is for the staff to provide the Interpretations Committee with an update on the Board’s 2015 Agenda Consultation. The Interpretations Committee will not be asked to make any decisions in this session.

The Board discussed the feedback received through outreach and in comment letters at its March 2016 meeting. See summary of agenda paper 24A and 24B for further detail on the key messages received by the Board The Board decided in its July 2016 meeting which topics would be included in its work plan and which would be removed. The Board published on its website a revised work plan.

Responses to matters raised by the Interpretations Committee

The Interpretations Committee submitted a comment letter response in response to the Agenda Consultation. The Board’s decisions on the issues raised in the comment letter are:

(a) Financial instruments with characteristics of equity: This project remains on the Board’s active research programme.

(b) Equity method of accounting: The Board decided that it would be more efficient to consider this topic after it has assessed feedback on the post-implementation review (PIR) of IFRS 11.

(c) IFRS 5 Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations: The Board decided that it should conduct a PIR of IFRS 5.

(d) Employee benefits The Board decided that there was insufficient demand to justify a comprehensive review of IAS 19 Employee Benefits. Accordingly, the Board removed this project from its research programme; and added to its research pipeline a feasibility study on pension benefits that depend on asset returns.

(e) Income taxes: The Board decided that neither a fundamental review of the Standard nor a narrow scope amendments were required. The Board also noted that it might be worth developing some education materials.

Next steps

The next steps in the Board’s 2015 Agenda Consultation are as follows:

(a) The Board will discuss the structure and content of its 2015 Agenda Consultation Feedback Statement at its September 2016 meeting.

(b) A draft of the Feedback Statement, incorporating the Board’s September discussions, will be presented to the October 2016 meeting of the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation for consideration.

The staff expect to ask the Board to approve publication of its Feedback Statement following that meeting of the Trustees.