Due process steps and permission to begin the balloting process (Agenda Paper 18)

Back­ground

The Board is currently assessing whether it could improve the accounting for goodwill. The Board plans to publish a Discussion Paper (DP) towards the end of 2019, with a view to potentially amending IFRS 3 and IAS 36.

Staff questions

In this session the staff will ask the Board:

• 1. to confirm that it wants to go ahead with a DP for all of the issues it has discussed (rather than issuing an Exposure Draft (ED) for selected items).
• 2. to confirm that all of the due process steps have been taken, so that the formal balloting of the DP can start.
• 3. what comment period it would like to allow .
• 4. whether it has any comments on the title of the DP, given that the project title ‘Goodwill and Impairment’ may not be fully representative of the content the Board is proposing to include in the DP.

Board discussion

On Question 1, Board members acknowledged that initially they had hoped to go directly to an ED, but given the discussions over the past few months, a DP would be the more appropriate consultation document. However, one Board member still preferred going directly to an ED for the items where the discussions are advanced enough. One Board member asked whether the DP would touch on acquired intangible assets, given the number of times the issue was raised during the post-implementation review of IFRS 3. The staff confirmed that there will be a section on intangible assets.

There was no significant discussion on the other questions.

Board decisions

13 of the 14 Board members supported the staff recommendation to issue a DP on all issues (Question 1 above). On Question 2, the Board confirmed unanimously that all due process steps had been taken. On Question 3, all Board members supported a comment period of 180 days for the DP. There was no vote on Question 4. The Board suggested that the staff find an appropriate title for the DP and the Board would subsequently approve or amend the title.