Beyond the GAAP newsletter
Each month, the newsletter Beyond the GAAP aims at keeping readers informed of financial and sustainability reporting developments.
Latest issues.
Beyond the GAAP no.187 – April 2024
On 9 April 2024, the IASB published IFRS 18 – Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements, the new standard that will replace the current IAS 1 –Presentation of Financial Statements. This standard, the culmination of the Primary Financial Statements (PFS) project initiated in 2015, aims to improve the comparability, quality and transparency of financial information for users of financial statements. It will apply retrospectively to reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027 at the latest (subject to endorsement by the European Union, earlier application will be possible). Given the structural changes it introduces, we believe it is important to pay immediate attention to this new standard in order to anticipate the necessary changes to internal systems and processes for producing financial statements and, perhaps, to rethink the way in which financial performance is reported.
Beyond the GAAP no.186 - March 2024
In last month’s issue, we looked at the three main topics covered by the draft amendments to IAS 32, IFRS 7 and IAS 1, as set out in the Financial Instruments with Characteristics of Equity (FICE) exposure draft. In this issue, we present the Board’s proposals on the other seven topics, including contingent settlement provisions, shareholder decisions and reclassification of financial instruments between financial liabilities and equity instruments. These two feature articles will provide our readers with a complete overview of the content of the exposure draft, for which the comment period ended on 29 March 2024.
Beyond the GAAP No. 185 - Feb 2024
Last November, we reported the publication of an IASB exposure draft of proposed amendments to IAS 32, IFRS 7 and IFRS 1 on the classification of financial instruments with characteristics of equity (“FICE”). In this issue, we present the IASB's proposals on three of the topics covered by these amendments: how to account for rights and obligations arising from legal or regulatory requirements, instruments that are settled in the entity's own equity instruments, and obligations requiring the entity to purchase its own equity instruments (including puts on non-controlling interests). These proposals are sure to prompt reactions from stakeholders.
Beyond the GAAP No. 184 - January 2024
This month, sustainability reporting has again dominated the news, with the provisional agreement from the European Parliament to delay Commission adoption of the next sets of ESRS (namely sector-specific ESRS and ESRS for non-EU groups) by two years, i.e. by 30 June 2026 instead of 30 June 2024 as initially indicated in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Sector-specific standards in eight areas will nonetheless be published as soon as they are ready with respect to high-impact sectors. In January, EFRAG also issued its proposals regarding an ESRS for listed SMEs and a voluntary standard for non-listed SMEs.
Beyond the GAAP No. 183 - December 2023
Happy New Year from everyone at Beyond the GAAP! The IASB work plan alone suggests that this new year will be a busy one on the accounting front. But the biggest new development in 2024 will be initial application of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), for the first companies falling within the scope of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) – i.e. large undertakings that are public-interest entities and that have more than 500 employees, as per the Accounting Directive.