2018

EFRAG final comment letter and Feedback Statement on proposed amendments to IAS 8

09 Jan, 2018

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has issued its final comment letter and Feedback Statement on the IASB exposure draft ED/2017/5 'Accounting Policies and Accounting Estimates (Proposed amendments to IAS 8)'.

EFRAG supports the IASB proposals; however, EFRAG recommends the development of some more illustrative examples in order to further clarify the distinction between an accounting policy and an accounting estimate.

EFRAG also:

  • Agrees with the proposed clarification that changes in valuation techniques and changes in estimation techniques are changes in accounting estimates.
  • Recommends that the proposed guidance on selecting a cost formula for interchangeable inventories be included in IAS 2 Inventories.
  • Recommends that the final amendments are delayed and then grouped with any further amendments to IAS 8 arising from the forthcoming ED on accounting policy changes to avoid making two amendments to IAS 8 in a short space of time.

The feedback statement describes the main comments received by EFRAG in response to its draft comment letter and how these comments were considered by EFRAG in finalising its final comment letter to the IASB.

The press release, full comment letter and feedback statement are available on the EFRAG website.

Recent sustainability reporting developments

08 Jan, 2018

A summary of recent developments at CDSB, GRI, SASB, CPA Canada, and ClientEarth.

The Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) has published a discussion paper looking at the application of materiality to climate-related financial disclosures, highlighting the main challenges and potential strategies for materiality determination. The press release on the CDSB website offers a summary of the main topics and access to the full paper.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) notes that sustainability reporting can support companies’ contribution to poverty alleviation. A new paper by GRI explains how the impact of sustainability reporting can be maximised to help reach the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of no poverty by 2030 and outlines recommendations and specific disclosures that companies can apply. Please click to access Corporate Reporting on Poverty on the GRI website.

The United States Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) has released its second annual State of Disclosure Report – An analysis of the effectiveness of sustainability disclosure in SEC filings 2017, which highlights both improving trends as well as opportunities for improvement. The report features SASB's analysis of the top 10 companies in each of 79 industries, by revenue, for which the independent standards-setting organisation has developed standards. Please click to access the report on the SASB website.

Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada), in collaboration with the University of Toronto’s Environmental Finance Advisory Committee (EFAC), hosted an expert panel session to discuss whether blockchain as a decentralised, peer-to-peer ledger technology could transform carbon markets by providing a transparent and reliable way to track carbon emissions and credits. Please click to access a short video and a report from the session on the CPA Canada website.

ClientEarth, a non-profit environmental law organisation, has published a report that highlights the findings of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and outlines how climate risk can impact the preparation of financial accounts and the potential professional indemnity risks to Auditors. While the focus of the legal analysis is on the responsibilities of auditors to consider climate-related risks during UK company audits highlights, many of the standards discussed are IFRS standards, and so may also be relevant elsewhere. Please click to access the analysis on the ClientEarth website.

FRC Priorities 2018/2019 Open Meeting

05 Jan, 2018

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is holding an Open Meeting on Tuesday 6 February 2018 to give stakeholders the opportunity to comment on its strategy and priorities for 2018/19.

The FRC published its Strategy for 2018/21 in December 2017 with a comment period until 28 February 2018.

Registration details for the meeting are available on the FRC website.

Agenda and pre-meeting summaries for the January 2018 IFRS Interpretations Committee meeting

04 Jan, 2018

The IASB's IFRS Interpretations Committee will be meeting by video conference call on 16 January 2018. The Committee will discuss one agenda decision to finalise and the Committee's work in progress.

The meeting starts at 12 noon London time and is scheduled to last 50 minutes. 

The staff are recommending that the Committee finalise a tentative decision not to add to its agenda a project to interpret how an entity accounts for a transaction in which it contributes property, plant and equipment to a newly-formed associate in exchange for shares in that associate.

The staff will also discuss work in progress relating to IFRS 15, IFRS 9, IAS 7, IAS 12, and IAS 37.

The full agenda for the meeting and our pre-meeting summaries can be found here. We will update this page for any changes to the agenda and our Deloitte observer notes from the meeting as they become available.

Correction list for hyphenation

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