Scandalous true crimes of IFRS!

The Ontario Securities Commission earlier this year launched the Office of the Whistleblower, the first paid whistleblower program by a securities regulator in Canada. The program offers compensation of up to $5 million to individuals who come forward with tips that lead to enforcement action. It accepts tips on “possible violations of Ontario securities law, including…

Trivial pursuit

International Accounting Standards Board issues minor changes to IFRS Standards announces a recent IASB news release. Some may see in this another candidate for the line-up of underwhelming IASB news releases I satirized here. But I guess they felt they had to let us know, minor or not. The line-up includes this year’s batch of…

OSC news – clutter-free!

The OSC has issued OSC Staff Notice 52-723 Office of the Chief Accountant Financial Reporting Bulletin. The document revisits the topics of going concern and non-GAAP measures, which we’ve covered on this blog several times in the past. On the latter, the document makes the observation that “the presentation and discussion of an extensive number of…

Identifying functional currency for development-stage entities – a matter of judgment!, part two

Continuing with some complexities of identifying an entity’s functional currency under IFRS We concluded last time by considering a Canadian mining entity that identities the South African rand as the functional currency of an exploration-stage foreign subsidiary, based solely on its current expenditures. As the discussion of CPA Canada’s IFRS Discussion Group indicates, it may well have to…

Identifying functional currency for development-stage entities – a matter of judgment!, part one

A common question relating to identifying an entity’s functional currency under IFRS, on which one can find plenty of diversity in practice. Many Canadian entities, particularly in the resource industries (and let’s assume for this purpose with Canadian dollar functional currencies), have exploration-stage foreign subsidiaries. At the current time, those subsidiaries are incurring the bulk…

Accounting for revenue – I’ll extend it if you will!

As we’ve discussed in many previous articles, the IASB has issued IFRS 15, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2018. The new standard is built around a five-step framework, the first step being to identify the contract(s) with the customer. Often of course, this step will be…

Trump and IFRS: shadow and light

In how many ways should we regret the ascent of Trump? I confess I see no hint of a “bright side” to this abomination. Have deeply-rooted anxieties ever settled on such a wretchedly unsuitable means of deliverance? It provides harsh evidence that the world is succumbing to irrationality and recklessness, regardless that its complexities and challenges have never required…