Changes to New Zealand IFRS equivalents to apply to for-profits only
03 May 2011
The New Zealand Accounting Standards Review Board (ASRB) and Financial Reporting Standards Board (FRSB) have agreed on a 'position statement' that all new New Zealand equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (NZ IFRSs) and amendments to existing NZ IFRSs with a mandatory effective date for annual reporting periods commencing on or after 1 January 2012 will be applicable to profit-oriented entities only.
This effectively means that the financial reporting requirements for 'public benefit entities' (PBEs) and 'qualifying entities' (i.e. those entities that apply New Zealand's differential reporting concessions) will effectively be frozen for the short-term.
The ASRB has previously outlined a new accounting framework for New Zealand consisting of two sets of accounting standards for entities required to prepare general purpose financial reports (see our previous story). New Zealand has being considering the possible adoption of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) for some time. It is possible that the ASRB may propose standards based on IPSASs for public benefit entities under the new arrangements.