And now for something completely different – Didrik Thrane-Nielsen, Project Director at European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, recently set out to “trigger some thinking on the basic building blocks in IFRS” by providing new proposed definitions for assets and liabilities, and issuing a challenge: “Please come up with one or more practical example(s) where the…

A couple of decades ago I was doing some work on the topic of executive compensation disclosure, and would have lost count of the number of times I heard the line “sunshine is the best disinfectant” used to justify the effort. As it turns out, it was a slight misquote all along: the actual line,…

Canada’s IFRS Accounting Standards Discussion Group recently discussed the following only-in-Trump-World scenario: The IDG considered whether it’s appropriate to recognize an asset as at a March 31, 2026 reporting date for potential tariff recoveries. Such recognition might be appropriate if one takes the view that the Supreme Court decision, together with subsequent developments up until…

A new IASB Chair is announced! His name is Sam Woods, and here’s the bio: Marek Muc pointed out: “Couldn’t help noticing that the new IASB chair doesn’t seem to have any substantial accounting background. But perhaps this is a role that’s more about politics than technical accounting…” Well, a good point. But a brief…

Let’s check in again on the fast-moving KPMG Australia scandal, as handily summed up here: Some recent developments, as reported by the Australia Financial Review: A “KPMG Australia scandal timeline” on one website tracks new developments almost daily over recent months. Of course, the events continue to trigger a flood of commentary, for instance: It’s…

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) recently published a consultation paper “seeking stakeholder input on potential ways to modernize securities legislation for public companies,” open for a 120-day comment period. Here’s how it sets out one item relevant to the subject matter of this blog. A reminder that in Canada, “venture issuers” generally refers to smaller public…

I came across a Substack page maintained by The IFRS Accountant… Do I mean an IFRS Accountant, you ask? Well no, in the sense that the author of the blog (who appears to be British) refers to themselves in the third person as such, otherwise maintaining anonymity other than to tell us: “After 35+ years…

Let’s return to the IFRS 18 concept of management-defined performance measures. You’ll recall that the new standard defines such a measure as ‘a subtotal of income and expenses that an entity uses in public communications outside financial statements; to communicate to users of financial statements management’s view of an aspect of the financial performance of…

Here are some extracts from the keynote speech at the recent IFRS Foundation conference, by Saker Nusseibeh, CEO of Federated Hermes Limited He returns to the theme at the end: But when I came across the above, I couldn’t help thinking about the following portion of Louis CK’s recent stand-up special Ridiculous (on Netflix): Well,…

Let’s return to the IFRS 18 concept of management-defined performance measures. You’ll recall that the new standard defines such a measure as ‘a subtotal of income and expenses that an entity uses in public communications outside financial statements; to communicate to users of financial statements management’s view of an aspect of the financial performance of…