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: Drafting
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’
Numbering in IFRS Accounting Standards
When the IASB started off, it created a system for numbering the paragraphs in IFRS Accounting Standards and accompanying material. This post summarises: Original paragraph numbering system The IASB’s original paragraph numbering system in IFRS 1 First-Time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards used the following principles: The appendices to a Standard are part of… Continue reading Numbering in IFRS Accounting Standards
Assumptions are not just a throw-away
The term ‘assumption’ figures prominently in some accounting standards, but can give the wrong impression. Where accounting standards refer to ‘assumptions’ The term appears in contexts where a preparer needs to make an accounting estimate. IAS defines accounting estimates as ‘monetary amounts in financial statements that are subject to measurement uncertainty’. Some IFRS standards use… Continue reading Assumptions are not just a throw-away
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
Is there such a thing as unrecognised income or expense?
The IASB’s Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting and IFRS Standards discuss both recognised assets and liabilities and unrecognised assets and liabilities. A question that sometimes comes up whether there exists a corresponding notion of unrecognised income and expenses. Unrecognised assets and unrecognised liabilities The Conceptual Framework acknowledges that not all assets and liabilities are not… Continue reading Is there such a thing as unrecognised income or expense?
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
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
Saying how likely something is
IFRS standards use too many different terms to describe how likely it is that an event will occur. That is a clear conclusion of KASB Research Report No. 39 / AASB Research Report No. 2 Accounting Judgements on Terms of Likelihood in IFRS: Korea and Australia, issued in 2016 by the Korea Accounting Standards Board… Continue reading Saying how likely something is