IASB publishes proposals as part of Disclosure Initiative

25 March 2014

The IASB published for public comment an ED outlining proposed amendments to IAS 1, 'Presentation of Financial Statements'. The ED is open for comments until 23 July, 2014.

Many respondents to the IASB’s Agenda Consultation 2011 asked the IASB to review the disclosure requirements in existing IFRS, to explore ways to improve disclosures. Consequently, in 2013 the IASB started the Disclosure Initiative, a package of several projects aimed at improving the disclosure of financial information.

The Exposure Draft proposes narrow-focus clarifying amendments to IAS 1 to address some of the concerns expressed about existing presentation and disclosure requirements and to ensure entities are able to use judgement when preparing their financial statements.

The proposed amendments:

• Clarify the materiality requirements in IAS 1, including an emphasis on the potentially detrimental effect of overwhelming useful information with immaterial information.
• Clarify that specific line items in the statement(s) of profit or loss and other comprehensive income and the statement of financial position can be disaggregated.
• Add requirements for how an entity should present subtotals in the statement(s) of profit or loss and other comprehensive income and the statement of financial position.
• Clarify that entities have flexibility as to the order in which they present the notes, but also emphasise that understandability and comparability should be considered by an entity when deciding that order.
• Remove potentially unhelpful guidance in IAS 1 for identifying a significant accounting policy.

Press release

ED

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