IAS 37 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets contains an unusual definition of contingent liabilities. The definition covers 3 different items that do not form a natural class, and it also differs from how people (other than people applying IAS 37) commonly think about contingent liabilities. This post explains how IAS 37 ended up having… Continue reading Defining contingent liabilities
Tag: Contingent
Booking a provision does not ‘set money aside’
A story this morning in The Times commits a serious and misleading wording error that is surprisingly common in the UK. Here are the headline and the first two and a half paragraphs: Santander puts £295 million aside for car loan claimsThe brewing controversy over mis-sold car loans has forced Santander UK to set… Continue reading Booking a provision does not ‘set money aside’
Why has research on ‘conservatism’ told standard setters so little?
There is a vast and burgeoning academic literature on conservatism in accounting, and a slightly less flourishing literature on the somewhat related notion of accounting prudence. When I worked in standard setting, I didn’t find that literature as helpful as I had hoped. My impression is that my colleagues and other standard setters didn’t find… Continue reading Why has research on ‘conservatism’ told standard setters so little?
Government grants: is the answer really so easy?
When the IASB first took over from its predecessor (IASC), many Board members believed that the IASB should replace IAS 20 Government Grants and Disclosure of Government Assistance. They considered that developing a replacement would be easy. The general feeling seemed that: This post deals with the following: Overview of IAS 20 The following are… Continue reading Government grants: is the answer really so easy?
Saying how likely something is: research methodology
In a separate post today, I summarised research by the Korea Accounting Standards Board (KASB) and Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB). That research looked into how preparers of financial statements and auditors interpret various terms used in IFRS Standards to denote how likely an event is. https://accountingmiscellany.com/saying-how-likely-something-is In this post, I comment on 2 aspects… Continue reading Saying how likely something is: research methodology