IFRS The IASB roadmap

IFRS The IASB roadmap: Foundation:On December 31, 2001, The International Accounting Standards Foundation (IASF) was incorporated as a tax-exempt organization in the U.S. state of Delaware.On February 6, 2001, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation was also incorporated as a tax-exempt organization in Delaware. The IFRS Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit organisation. Its primary mission is to develop, in the public interest, a single set of high-quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) based upon clearly articulated principles.

IFRS are developed by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), the independent standard-setting body of the IFRS Foundation.The IASB assumed accounting standard-setting responsibilities from its predecessor body, the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), on March 1, 2001. This was the culmination of a restructuring based on the recommendations of the report Recommendations on Shaping IASC for the Future.

The IASB forms part the three-tier structure employed by the IFRS Foundation and is responsible for setting the IFRS and related technical activities. The IASB is overseen by the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation, responsible for the organisation’s governance, the appointment of IASB members and funding. The IFRS Foundation is publicly accountable to a Monitoring Board of capital market authorities.

IFRS The IASB roadmap: Members

The IASB originally had 13 full-time Board members, each with one vote. They are selected as a group of experts with a mix of experience of standard-setting, preparing and using accounts, and academic work.At their January 2009 meeting the Trustees of the Foundation concluded the first part of the second Constitution Review, announcing the creation of a Monitoring Board and the expansion of the IASB to 16 members and giving more consideration to the geographical composition of the IASB.

The IFRS Interpretations Committee has 14 members. Its brief is to provide timely guidance on issues that arise in practice.

A unanimous vote is not necessary in order for the publication of a Standard, exposure draft, or final “IFRIC” Interpretation. The Board’s 2008 Due Process manual stated that approval by nine of the members is required.

Information about IFRS with relation to IASB

Financial statements are a structured representation of the financial positions and financial performance of an entity. The objective of financial statements is to provide information about the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of an entity that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions. Financial statements also show the results of the management’s stewardship of the resources entrusted to it.^[4]

To meet this objective, financial statements provide information about an entity’s:

This information, along with other information in the notes, assists users of financial statements in predicting the entity’s future cash flows and, in particular, their timing and certainty.

The following are the general features in IFRS:

• Fair presentation and compliance with IFRS: Fair presentation requires the faithful representation of the effects of the transactions, other events and conditions in accordance with the definitions and recognition criteria for assets, liabilities, income and expenses set out in the Framework of IFRS.
• Going concern: Financial statements are present on a going concern basis unless management either intends to liquidate the entity or to cease trading, or has no realistic alternative but to do so.
• Accrual basis of accounting: An entity shall recognise items as assets, liabilities, equity, income and expenses when they satisfy the definition and recognition criteria for those elements in the Framework of IFRS.
• Materiality and aggregation: Every material class of similar items has to be presented separately. Items that are of a dissimilar nature or function shall be presented separately unless they are immaterial.
• Offsetting: Offsetting is generally forbidden in IFRS. However certain standards require offsetting when specific conditions are satisfied (such as in case of the accounting for defined benefit liabilities in IAS 19  and the net presentation of deferred tax liabilities and deferred tax assets in IAS 12).
• Frequency of reporting: IFRS requires that at least annually a complete set of financial statements is presented. However listed companies generally also publish interim financial statements (for which the accounting is fully IFRS compliant)for which the presentation is in accordance with IAS 34 Interim Financing Reporting.
• Comparative information: IFRS requires entities to present comparative information in respect of the preceding period for all amounts reported in the current period’s financial statements. In addition comparative information shall also be provided for narrative and descriptive information if it is relevant to understanding the current period’s financial statements.The standard IAS 1 also requires an additional statement of financial position (also called a third balance sheet) when an entity applies an accounting policy retrospectively or makes a retrospective restatement of items in its financial statements, or when it reclassifies items in its financial statements. This for example occurred with the adoption of the revised standard IAS 19 (as of 1 January 2013) or when the new consolidation standards IFRS 10-11-12 were adopted (as of 1 January 2013 or 2014 for companies in the European Union).
• Consistency of presentation: IFRS requires that the presentation and classification of items in the financial statements is retained from one period to the next unless:
  1. it is apparent, following a significant change in the nature of the entity’s operations or a review of its financial statements, that another presentation or classification would be more appropriate having regard to the criteria for the selection and application of accounting policies in IAS 8; or
  2. an IFRS standard requires a change in presentation.

IFRS The IASB roadmap: Framework of IASB :

• In the development of future International Financial Reporting Standards and in its review of existing International Accounting Standards; and
• In promoting the harmonisation of regulations, accounting standards and procedures relating presentation of financial statements by providing a basis for reducing the number of alternative accounting treatments permitted by international standards.In addition, the framework may assist:
• Preparers of financial statements in applying international standards and in dealing with topics that have yet to form the subject of an International Accounting Standard
• Auditors in forming an opinion as to whether financial statements conform with IFRS
• Users of financial statements in interpreting the information contained in financial statements prepared in conformity with IFRS
• Those who are interested in the work of IASB, providing them with information about its approach to the formulation of accounting standards.IFRS The IASB roadmap: To ensure the framework provides useful information it identifies a range of user groups which include:
• Investors
• Lenders
• Employees
• Suppliers
• Other trade creditors
• Customers
• Government agencies
• The public.The framework comprises seven sections which cover areas as:
  1. The objective of financial statements
  2. Underlying assumptions
  3. Qualitative characteristics of financial information
  4. The elements of financial statements;
  5. Recognition of the elements of financial statements
  6. Measurement of the elements of financial statements
  7. Concepts of capital maintenance.

IFRS The IASB roadmap: The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is the independent, accounting standard-setting body of the IFRS Foundation.

The IASB was founded on April 1, 2001, as the successor to the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC). It is responsible for developing International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), previously known as International Accounting Standards (IAS) and promoting the use and application of these standards

Detailed IFRS Structure of the IFRS and IASB to Know More about the Structure of IASB and IFRS

IFRS The IASB roadmap

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