Effective date of IFRS 16 tentatively set

At its October meeting, the IASB (tentatively) decided to set the effective date of the IFRS 16 – Leases standard at 1 January 2019.

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21 December 2015

Early application will be permitted, provided that the entity also applies IFRS 15 – Revenue from Contracts with Customers. As a result, any entity may opt to apply IFRS 16 in 2018, and entities may apply the standard from 2017 if they are also opting for early application of IFRS 15 from the same date. All of this is subject to adoption by the European Union.

Shortly after announcing this decision, the IASB staff then published a document entitled ‘Lease Project Update’ on 29 October. This document provides an overview of how a lease will be defined in the IASB’s new leases Standard, and includes a working draft of the application guidance and accompanying illustrative examples. All of these elements are expected to be included in the future standard. The document complements a previous project update on the same theme, which was published by the IASB staff last February.

Technical Updates will review the content of this document in a future issue. In the meantime, readers who wish to cast an eye over the document can find it at the leases project update.