IASB Supplementary Meeting

The IASB is holding a supplementary meeting on 15 May 2020 to consider feedback on its proposal to amend IFRS 16 in response to COVID-19.  

The staff recommend that the Board finalise the proposed amendments, but allow the expedient to be applied to COVID-19-related rent concessions to payments originally due on or before 30 June 2021; require disclosure of the amount recognised in profit or loss to reflect changes in lease payments that arise from COVID-19-related rent concessions; and specify that in the reporting period in which a lessee first applies the amendment, it is not required to disclose the amount of the adjustment for each line item affected or its effect on earnings per share.

The staff recommend that the Board take no further action in response to requests to provide similar relief to lessors.  If the Board agrees with its recommendations, the staff expect issuing a final amendment on or around 28 May 2020.

IASB Meeting

The IASB is meeting on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 May 2020.

Amendments to IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts: The amendments to IFRS 17 are being finalised by the staff. During this process the staff identified five (sweep) issues for which the staff are recommending that that make additional changes to the Standard.

Maintenance and Consistent Application: Sale and leaseback with variable payments: At its April 2020 meeting, the Board decided to amend IFRS 16 for sale and leaseback transactions when the lease has variable payments. At this meeting the staff are recommending that the proposed amendment be applied retrospectively in accordance with IAS 8, except when hindsight is required, and that early application be permitted.

Disclosure Initiative—Accounting policies: The staff recommend that the Board finalise the proposal to require entities to disclose ‘material’ accounting policies instead of ‘significant’ accounting policies, with minor changes. The finalisation should not be delayed to align with any changes arising from the ED General Presentation and Disclosures. However, the staff will consider whether to align the effective date of this amendment with the amendments to IAS 8 under the Accounting Policies and Accounting Estimates project.

Management Commentary: The discussion will continue to focus on disclosure objectives and the type of information that would support those objectives. There are two areas this month: risk and the external evironment.

Research Programme update: The staff will update the Board on the research programme, including recent the changes to the timetable and priorities.

There will also be an oral update of IBOR Reform and the Effects on Financial Reporting.

More information

Our pre-meeting summaries are available on our May meeting notes and supplementary meeting notes pages and will be supplemented with our popular meeting notes after the meeting.