There are seven topics on the agenda.

Tuesday 24 October

The meeting starts with an education session on goodwill and impairment. As an education session the staff are not asking for decisions from the Board. The Board has been considering how to make the goodwill impairment test more effective but less costly to perform. At this meeting the staff are seeking feedback on three issues. The first is whether there should be a single model for measuring the recoverable amount of the CGU (fair value less costs to sell or value in use) and whether to factor “dynamic headroom” into the impairment assessment. The second is whether to provide relief from the mandatory annual impairment testing of goodwill and whether to change how value in use is estimated. The third is the adequacy of the information disclosed about goodwill. 

In September the Board tentatively decided to propose amending IAS 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors to lower the impracticability threshold for retrospective application of voluntary changes in accounting policies that result from agenda decisions. The staff are recommending that the Board proceed with the proposal with a 120-day comment period. They expect to issue the proposal in the first quarter of 2018.

The session on rate-regulated activities focuses on feedback from the World Standard-Setters Conference held in late September 2017. Although the group was generally supportive, several specific concerns were raised. The project consultative group meets on 26 October.

The staff will present a paper seeking approval to finalise the update to the IFRS Taxonomy for IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts.

The day concludes with a discussion of the definition of a business. The staff have been analysing six differences between the proposed IASB definition and the FASB’s revised definition (which has already been finalised).  With one exception, the staff are recommending that the IASB finalise its amendments. If the Board agrees the staff will prepare the final amendments for publication in the first half of 2018, for business combinations that are in an annual reporting period on or after 1 January 2020.

Wednesday 25 October

The Board will discuss the staff recommendation to include within the scope of the project on business combinations under common control group restructurings that are not business combinations.

The last agenda item is Conceptual Framework. The current draft underwent a fatal flaw review and the staff have been bringing issues to the Board from that review. There are two issues being discussed at this meeting. The first relates to the definition of a liability and concerns that the words “no practical ability to avoid as a going concern” captures future costs. The staff accept the concerns but think they are from drafting issues rather than a flaw in the Board’s decisions. The second issue is the lack of clarity of the link between stewardship and the objective of financial reporting. The staff are recommending including a flowchart in Chapter 1 of the revised Conceptual Framework to illustrate the link between the objective of general purpose financial reporting and the information needed to meet that objective.

More information

Our pre-meeting summaries are available on our October meeting note page and will be supplemented with our popular meeting notes after the meeting.