SIC-8 — First-time Application of IASs as the Primary Basis of Accounting

References

  • IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements

History

  • Issued July 1998.
  • Effective date: 1 August 1998.
  • Superseded by IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (issued June 2003), effective for an entity's first IFRS financial statements for a period beginning on or after 1 January 2004

Summary of SIC-8

The issues dealt with in SIC-8 are:

  • how the financial statements of an enterprise should be prepared and presented in the period of first-time application of the full set of IASs
  • how the specific transitional provisions set out in certain Standards and Interpretations are to be applied in the period of first-time application of IASs to balances of items that existed already at the effective date of those Standards and Interpretations.

Under SIC-8, in the period of first-time application of IASs as the primary accounting basis, the financial statements of an enterprise, including comparative information, should be prepared and presented as if the financial statements had always been prepared in accordance with the IASs effective for the period of first-time application. Therefore, the Standards and Interpretations should be applied retrospectively except when Standards or Interpretations require or permit a different transitional treatment or when the amount of the adjustment relating to prior periods cannot be reasonably determined. Adjustment amounts should be treated as an adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings of the earliest period presented in accordance with IASs. If adjustments relating to prior periods or comparative information cannot be determined, the fact should be disclosed.

On the first-time application of IASs, an enterprise may apply the transitional provisions only for periods ending at the date prescribed in the respective Standards and Interpretations. The transitional treatment adopted should be disclosed. For example, goodwill may only be written off directly against equity when it was acquired in periods beginning prior to January 1995.

Correction list for hyphenation

These words serve as exceptions. Once entered, they are only hyphenated at the specified hyphenation points. Each word should be on a separate line.