We comment on discontinued operations proposals

  • Deloitte Comment Letter Image

23 Jan 2009

Deloitte has submitted a Letter of Comment on the IASB's exposure draft of Discontinued Operations – Proposed Amendments to IFRS 5. The proposals are to revise the definition of discontinued operations in IFRS 5 Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations and require additional disclosure about components of an entity that have been disposed of or are classified as held for sale.

Our letter expresses support the Board's joint project with the FASB to develop a common definition of and disclosure requirements for discontinued operations. However, we point out that even if this exposure draft is adopted, convergence will not be achieved:

While we support the convergence objective of this proposed amendment, because of scope differences between IFRS 5 and FASB Statement 144 Accounting for Impairment of Disposal of Long Lived Assets, there will continue to be differences in reporting discontinued operations. For example, FASB Statement 144 excludes equity method investments from its scope whereas IFRS 5 does not. As such, a disposal of an equity method investment cannot be presented as a discontinued operation under US GAAP but could qualify under IFRS. While these differences are not included in the scope of this project, we believe the Boards should consider the scope differences in further convergence projects.
You'll find all of our past letters of comment Here.

 

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