Standard mismatch!

Complexities in accounting for acquisitions of groups of assets Here’s another issue recently discussed by CPA Canada’s IFRS Discussion Group: IFRS 3 Business Combinations provides specific guidance on how to allocate the cost of acquisition when an entity acquires a group of assets that does not constitute a business. Paragraph 2(b) of IFRS 3 indicates…

The Brits cover it all!

“Corporate reporting standard improving, though quality not as high as it should be,” says the headline of a recent news release from the UK’s Financial Reporting Council. This summarizes the findings of the FRC’s Annual Review of Corporate Reporting. Although the report covers a range of topics, we’ll focus here on some of the items…

Straight talk! More on character in financial reporting

Let’s return to our recent reflections on how an entity might manifest “character” in its financial reporting. The Canadian National Instrument 51-102F1 says in the second paragraph of its introductory section that the issuer’s objective when preparing an MD&A includes “openly reporting bad news as well as good news.” Of course, in corporate reporting as…

Proposed amendments to IAS 16 – an obscuring clarification?

Back in June, the IASB issued an exposure draft of proposed amendments to IAS 16 Property, Plant and Equipment— Proceeds before Intended Use The comment period has closed already, but I’m only getting round now to writing about it (there’s always so much to cover!) It focuses on one of the examples provided in IAS…

Caught in the trap of IFRS, or: the suspicious mind of Al Rosen

Even by his standards, Al Rosen’s latest piece for Canadian Accountant, “How to detect two common IFRS investor traps,” is a major mishmash of mud-throwing, suspicion and paranoia, painting the IFRS reporting landscape as a defect- and crime-strewn wasteland, but providing little coherent advice on how to stay alive within it. He builds the article…