As many public sector entities have heritage responsibilities, the consultation paper is intended to be a first step toward developing financial reporting guidance to support accountability and decision making in this area. The paper describes heritage items as items that are intended to be held indefinitely and preserved for the benefit of present and future generations because of their rarity and/or significance. It proposes that:

• heritage items' special characteristics do not prevent them from being assets for the purposes of financial reporting;
• heritage items should be recognised in the statement of financial position if they meet the recognition criteria in the Conceptual Framework; and
• in many cases, it will be possible to assign a monetary value to heritage assets.

The paper also discusses initial and subsequent measurement of heritage assets, whether heritage preservation responsibilities could involve present obligations for entities that should be recognised as liabilities in the financial statements, and presentation of information for heritage in general purpose financial reports.

Comments on the consultation paper are due to the IPSASB by 30 September 2017.

Please click for the following additional information on the IPSASB website:

• Press release
• Consultation paper