Some people wonder why companies present pension liabilities net of the related plan assets. They suggest that instead companies should consolidate their pension plans. People making that suggestion think it would lead to companies presenting pension liabilities (gross) separately from the plan assets. This post explains why introducing a requirement to consolidate pension plans would… Continue reading Does it matter that companies don’t consolidate pension funds?
Tag: Standard setting
Myths about Deferred tax
There are many myths about what deferred tax is. As a result, many companies do not understand what information about deferred tax can tell investors. Thus, companies typically present that information in a technical way that investors find difficult to understand. Consequently, most investors dismiss that information as an uninteresting technicality and they ignore it.… Continue reading Myths about Deferred tax
Language Barriers to commenting on IASB proposals
A recent paper looked at whether language barriers deter people from responding to IASB exposure drafts. It also discussed whether the IASB pays too little attention to comment letters from countries where the main language is very different from English. The paper “No Comment”: Language Barriers and the IASB’s Comment Letter Process, by Eduardo Flores,… Continue reading Language Barriers to commenting on IASB proposals
Finding out what users need
To set good accounting standards, standard-setters need to understand deeply how users of financial statements use and process financial information. One very useful report on this topic area was an academic literature review The use of information by capital providers produced in 2013, by a team of 6 academics: Stefano Cascino, Mark Clatworthy, Beatriz García… Continue reading Finding out what users need
Recognition
When the IASB developed the 2018 version of its Conceptual Framework for Financial Statements (2018), it created a set of principles that it believed would provide a more coherent base for its future decisions on recognition. The post summarises how those principles differ from the recognition criteria contained in the previous (2010) version of the… Continue reading Recognition
Help for unpacking the objective of financial reporting
Paragraphs 1.2-1.4 of the IASB’s Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting are written so densely that some people do not succeed in unpacking what they say. To make unpacking the meaning of those paragraphs easier, the IASB staff recommended in 2017 that the IASB should add a flowchart to the Conceptual Framework. This post summarises the… Continue reading Help for unpacking the objective of financial reporting
Tell investors about your crypto
There has recently been turmoil in the world of cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges. So, are companies disclosing enough about their holdings of cryptocurrencies and other crypto-assets? If they are not, should the IASB take any action? This post discusses the following: For brevity, in the rest of this post, I use the term cryptocurrencies to… Continue reading Tell investors about your crypto
First-time adoption of IFRS Standards: too many new exemptions?
The IASB issued IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards in 2003. Under IFRS 1, entities switching to IFRS Standards must apply those standards in full, with some limited transitional modifications. The Basis for Conclusions on IFRS 1 describes the decision-making framework the IASB used in deciding what transitional modifications to include in… Continue reading First-time adoption of IFRS Standards: too many new exemptions?
Saying how likely something is: way forward
IFRS standards use too many different terms to say how likely it is that an event will occur. And different people using IFRS Standards interpret those terms in different ways. Those clear messages appeared in a research report issued in 2016 by the Korea Accounting Standards Board (KASB) and Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB). I… Continue reading Saying how likely something is: way forward
Those mushrooming effective date paragraphs
The IASB has a problem with effective date paragraphs. There are far too many of them and their number keeps growing. I believe it is time to find a better approach to writing these paragraphs. What does the IASB do now? When the IASB amends a standard, it also adds to that standard a paragraph… Continue reading Those mushrooming effective date paragraphs