EFRAG draft comment letter on the proposed amended IFRS Taxonomy due process
04 Dec, 2015
The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has issued a draft comment letter on the IFRS Foundation's invitation to comment on proposed amendments to the due process for the development and maintenance of the IFRS Taxonomy, which would give the IASB greater involvement and responsibility.
In the draft comment letter on the November 2015 proposals, EFRAG acknowledges that it is important to continue to develop and maintain an IFRS Taxonomy in order to control the quality of the taxonomy and the use of the 'IFRS' brand name. EFRAG clearly supports the IFRS Foundation’s goal of having the IFRS Taxonomy recognised as the globally agreed standard for tagging and structuring IFRS financial information within a digital report.
However, EFRAG is worried that the proposed amendments might give the IFRS Taxonomy too much prominence in the IASB's activities and also feels that the proposed involvement of IASB members in approving the taxonomy content might lead to the taxonomy actually driving the disclosure requirements in standards, which would mean the IASB would move away its principles-based approach. EFRAG also warns against additional tasks for Board members as these could only come at the cost of spending less time on the tasks they already have.
Comments are requested by 30 January 2016. For more information, see the press release and the draft comment letter on the EFRAG website.