Accountancy Europe notes that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in rapid deployment of government financial resources and development of support programmes. As governments should be very transparent about the effects of this, the recommended short-term actions include:

• Controls over public sector expenditure have been relaxed. It is essential that governments are transparent as to the amount of funds received by beneficiaries and that such payments are retrospectively audited to ensure they have been correctly used.
• Public sector entity reporting and auditing requirements may need to be temporarily relaxed in certain circumstances. But transparency is important, and they should report what truly matters.
• Central governments should urgently provide guidance for public sector entities on reporting of going concern, post balance sheet events and management commentary.

Accountancy Europe also notes that it will not be business as usual once the crisis is over and that governments should seize the opportunity to drive forward programmes that support long-term fiscal resilience. The recommended long-term actions, therefore, include:

• Public sector balance sheets will be more important than ever with public sector assets and liabilities set to balloon.
• Post coronavirus crisis, the public sector finances will need to be restored and economies will need a kick-start. Robust accruals-based accounts provide the foundation necessary for forward looking estimates and economic models.
• Governments will need record levels of borrowing, much of it from open markets, and investors will want to see reliable, internationally comparable and timely information. Adopting internationally recognised public sector accounting standards (IPSAS) would provide such foundations.

The actions recommended by Accountancy Europe are available in a summary overview, an in-depth analysis of the short-term actions and an in-depth analysis of the long-term actions.

EFRAG assesses that the amendment meets the technical endorsement criteria of the IAS Regulation and is conducive to the European public good. It therefore recommends its endorsement.

The European Commission's Accounting Regulatory Committee's (ARC) vote, the next step in the endorsement process, is expected to take place later in June, however, final endorsement is currently expected not before "Q3/Q4 2020".

Please click to access the final endorsement advice letter and a corresponding press release on the EFRAG website.

The third article Opportunities for Enhancing the Goodwill Impairment Framework can be accessed on the IVSC website.

The second article What is the Information Value of the Current Impairment Framework? was published in December 2019.

The first article Is Goodwill a Wasting Asset? was published in September 2019.

The two boards informed each other about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their respective accounting standards and exchanged views on technical topics in which they both have an interest, including accounting for goodwill and intangibles and financial performance reporting and disclosures.

The next meeting between the FASB and ASBJ is expected to be held in the second half of 2020. For more information about the latest meeting, see the press release on the ASBJ website.

The statement discusses:

• the importance of disclosures about the impact on amounts recognised, measured and presented in the financial statements;
• the importance of transparent and complete disclosures that should be entity-specific and especially highlight significant judgments and estimates;
• non-GAAP measures that should be reliable and informative;
• interim reports that should provide robust disclosures of material information and management’s response to the changing circumstances;
• implications for the annual audit; and
• the balance between the flexibility provided by regulators by extending the period to file financial information and the responsibility to provide timely and comprehensive financial information that includes reasonable and supportable judgments.

A corresponding press release and the public statement are available on the IOSCO website.

The IASB's project on goodwill and impairment aims at improving the information companies provide to investors, at a reasonable cost, about the businesses those companies buy and would help to hold management to account for its decisions to acquire those businesses.

In its draft comment letter on the discussion paper published in March 2020, EFRAG

• supports the objective to explore whether companies can, at a reasonable cost, provide investors with more useful information about the acquisitions companies make;
• notes some practical issues to consider in relation to disclosures about the strategic rationale, management’s objectives for an acquisition, and synergies; asks whether this information should be provided in the management commentary rather than the financial statements; and questions whether the benefits of some of the disclosures would outweigh the costs;
• suggests that the guidance on goodwill allocation to cash generating units is possibly amended to improve how the impairment test for cash-generating units containing goodwill is applied in practice;
• does not offer a view yet on whether amortisation of goodwill should not be reintroduced;
• appreciates the attempts to simplify the impairment test, but has reservations about introducing an indicator-only approach;
• supports the proposal to remove the restriction that prohibits companies from including cash flows arising from a future uncommitted restructuring or from enhancing the asset’s performance as well as to remove the requirement to use pre-tax inputs and pre-tax discount rates to calculate value in use;
• does not assess that there would be any benefits of presenting the amount of total equity excluding goodwill in the statement of the financial position; and
• would recommend that the issue on whether some intangible assets could be included in goodwill should be considered in a second phase of the project.

Comments on EFRAG's draft comment letter are requested by 30 November 2020. For more information, see the press release and the draft comment letter on the EFRAG's website.

The podcast features discussions related to amendment to IFRS 16 Leases to help companies with covid-19-related rent concessions. The podcast also discusses:

• Amendments to IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts;
• IBOR reform and the effects on financial reporting — Phase 2;
• Management commentary;
• Disclosure initiative — Accounting policies; and
• Maintenance and consistent application.

The podcast can be accessed through the press release on the IASB website. More information on the topics discussed is available through our comprehensive notes taken by Deloitte observers at the May IASB meeting as well as the Board's supplementary COVID-19 meeting.

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to some lessors providing relief to lessees by deferring or relieving them of amounts that would otherwise be payable.  In some cases, this is through negotiation between the parties, but can be as a consequence of a government encouraging or requiring that the relief be provided. Such relief is taking place in many jurisdictions in which entities that apply IFRSs operate.

When there is a change in lease payments, the accounting consequences will depend on whether that change meets the definition of a lease modification, which IFRS 16 Leases defines as “a change in the scope of a lease, or the consideration for a lease, that was not part of the original terms and conditions of the lease (for example, adding or terminating the right to use one or more underlying assets, or extending or shortening the contractual lease term)”.

On 24 April 2020, the Board published an exposure draft with a proposed amendment intended to provide practical relief to lessees in accounting for rent concessions arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the urgency of the matter, the exposure draft was published with a 14-day comment period. On 15 May 2020, the Board considered the feedback received and decided to finalise the amendment with some changes.

Changes

The changes in Covid-19-Related Rent Concessions (Amendment to IFRS 16) amend IFRS 16 to

1. provide lessees with an exemption from assessing whether a COVID-19-related rent concession is a lease modification;
2. require lessees that apply the exemption to account for COVID-19-related rent concessions as if they were not lease modifications;
3. require lessees that apply the exemption to disclose that fact; and
4. require lessees to apply the exemption retrospectively in accordance with IAS 8, but not require them to restate prior period figures.

The main change from the proposal in the exposure draft is that the IASB had proposed that the practical expedient should only be available for lease payments originally due in 2020. However, after having considered the feedback to the exposure draft, the IASB decided to extend this period to June 2021 to also capture rent concessions granted now and lasting for 12 months.

The IASB considered but decided not to provide any additional relief for lessors as the current situation is not as equally challenging for them and the required accounting is not as complicated.

Effective date

The amendment is effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 June 2020. Earlier application is permitted, including in financial statements not yet authorised for issue at 28 May 2020. The amendment is also available for interim reports.

Proposed Taxonomy Update

The IASB has also published a proposed Taxonomy Update to reflect the amendment to IFRS 16. Comments on the proposed Taxonomy update are requested by 29 June 2020.

Additional information

Please click for:

• IASB press release (link to IASB website)
• Access to the final amendment (freely available on the IASB website as part of the COVID-19 response)
• Our IFRS in Focus newsletter on this topic
• Our IAS Plus project page on IFRS 16 and COVID-19
• Access to the proposed Taxonomy Update on the IASB website

The review was originally scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020. An updated work programme released today shows that this date has been moved to the first quarter of 2021.

Please see this communication on the EC website (entry number four under item 2).

The amendments to IFRS 17 are being finalised by the staff. During this process the staff identified five (sweep) issues for which the Board decided to make additional changes to the standard, along with two other matters that were identified after the staff paper had been distributed.

The podcast can be accessed through the press release on the IASB website.

Our comprehensive meeting notes from the session are available here.