Rockin’ it!

“Chair Hoogervorst of #IASB quotes #Dylan !!” announced an over-excited tweet earlier this year. As the “quoting” consisted merely of observing that “the times, they are a-changin’ and we all need to adapt, the IASB included,” we can fairly conclude that even a single exclamation point would have been an excessive response, let alone two.…

Interim disclosures of new standards – make me disclose it twice, shame on you…?

Here ‘s another issue recently discussed by CPA Canada’s IFRS Discussion Group A reporting issuer prepares Q2-2018 and Q3-2018 interim financial statements for the six months and nine months ending June 30 and September 30, 2018, respectively. The reporting issuer adopts IFRS 9 and IFRS 15 on January 1, 2018, and is considering the extent…

Reporting on key audit matters – will readers see clearly now?

I’ve seldom mentioned audit matters on this blog – it’s not the area that primarily concerns or interests me… It’s worth spending a few moments though on pending changes to the current environment. Most imminently, Canadian Auditing Standard (CAS) 700 Forming an opinion and reporting on financial statements brings in an array of changes applying…

Unfixed!

The headscratching world of liabilities versus equity Here’s another issue recently discussed by CPA Canada’s IFRS Discussion Group: Paragraph 15 of IAS 32 Financial Instruments: Presentation states: “The issuer of a financial instrument shall classify the instrument, or its component parts, on initial recognition as a financial liability, a financial asset or an equity instrument…

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…