Exposure Draft of Amendments to IAS 1

On 25 March 2014, the International Accounting Standards Board (“IASB”) published an exposure draft entitled “Disclosure Initiative – Proposed amendments to IAS 1”, which is open for comment until 23 July 2014. This publication forms part of a wider project on disclosures in the notes to IFRS financial statements.

Keywords: Mazars, Thailand, Accounting, IASB, IFRS, IAS 1, Exposure Draft

6 June 2014

Many respondents to the 2011 consultation on the IASB’s agenda had asked the IASB to review the disclosure requirements in existing IFRS and to explore ways to improve disclosures.

In December 2012, the IASB therefore decided to add a broad-scope project on disclosures to its work plan, in addition to its current work on the Conceptual Framework. The Disclosure Initiative project was launched in 2013 and will take the form of several limited-scope projects aimed at improving the quality of disclosures in the notes.

The recent publication is one of these limited-scope projects. The exposure draft only relates to IAS 1 – Presentation of Financial Statements, and its purpose is to clarify that entities can use their judgement in the presentation of financial statements. The proposed amendments:

  • Clarify the materiality requirement in IAS 1.
  • Clarify that specific line items in the statement(s) of profit or loss and other comprehensive income and the statement of financial position can be disaggregated.
  • Add requirements for how an entity should present subtotals in the statement(s) of profit or loss and other comprehensive income and the statement of financial position.
  • Clarify that entities have flexibility as to the order in which they present the notes, but also emphasise that understandability and comparability should be considered by an entity when deciding that order.
  • Remove potentially unhelpful guidance in IAS 1 for identifying a significant accounting policy.

The exposure draft can be accessed on the IASB’s website.