Financial Statement Presentation
Sweep issues from pre-ballot draft
The Boards discussed a number of sweep issues that arose during the review of the pre-ballot draft of the exposure draft. The FASB agreed to retain the existing requirements for the presentation and disclosure of unusual or infrequently occurring items. The IASB agreed to the same but also to include a specific question on the matter in its exposure draft.
The Boards agreed not to include the additional guidance proposed in the pre-ballot draft on the classification of short-term assets and liabilities in their respective exposure drafts. The FASB noted that its guidance on the classification of debt is not converged on the guidance of the IASB as it only focuses on the expection of what will happen, whereas the IASB guidance focuses on what was contractually agreed. The FASB express their commitment to converge with the IASB on the matter and agreed not to include the guidance in its exposure draft but to add the item to its agenda.
The Boards acknowledged that the guidance in IAS 1 on the mixed presentation of assets and liabilities in the statement of financial position has caused confusion in the past, but not agree with the staff to eliminate it. The Boards agreed to retain the guidance, but clarify the wording to resolve some of the confusion.
The Boards agreed to require both the reconciliation of operating income to operating cash flows and non-cash transaction information to be presented immediately following the statement of cash flows, but have requested the staff to amend the wording to require its presentation to be incorporated in the primary statement instead of being shown as a footnote.
The Boards acknowledged that the presentation of cash flows that represent increases in operating capacity separately from those required to maintain operating capacity has not been practical in the past and agreed to eliminate the requirement from the proposed disclosures. The IASB also noted that the presentation of cash flows arising from the activities of each reportable segment forms part of the segment review and need not be repeated in the FSP disclosure requirements. The Boards agreed that the amount of undrawn borrowing facilities should be required disclosures instead of encouraged.
The Boards agreed not to require entities to present the sections and categories in the same order in each of the primary statements, but to clarify that information should be presented in a way that provide meaningful information to users. The Boards also agreed to clarify that all sections comprising profit or loss, except the discontinued operation section, in the statement of comprehensive income be presented before the income tax section.