Talk:International Financial Reporting Standards

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[edit] External links

would someone mind adding few external links for more information on IAS?

thanks —84.47.114.50


I know the answer is "why dont you write it then", but this page is severely lacking for such a massive issue. --lincs_geezer 23:00, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Also the page listed stuff about other countries before (USA, China etc) but seems to have been wiped?--lincs_geezer 06:00, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Who wants to pay for reading Standards?

ouh, Next to pay for Laws (excluding taxes)? Exempli gratis (e.g.) pay for tax forms etc?

Aye in the statement of principles it says one is the promotion and use of the standards, having to pay for them is hardly promotion - especially as its not a corporate organisation out to make a profit! I mean it would cost next to nothing to publish them on the website. --lincs_geezer 22:38, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

Questions about IAS / IFRS? Ask them here: http://ifrs.phpbb3.com Pete

That link dosen't work --lincs_geezer 20:43, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

It works for me but the project is killed by spam :

[edit] European Union Official Journal

The IAS as approved by the ARC are published in the Official Journal. No exposure drafts are thus available without charge, but the standards itself as part of European law are available without charge in all official languages of the European Union as in use in 2003 (including English).

[edit] Harmonised (or Standard) Accounting Classification Code???

I have tried to search the content of this topic on the internet without any satisfied results. The reason that I want this info is that there are a certain amount of literature which mentions accounting items, such as

AP 045 Cash & Equivalents
AP 047 Other Short Term Investment
AP 088 Total Assets
.....
.....

AP 111 Short Term Debt
AP 144 Sales Revenues

etc

Would any expert please mention such information in the article? If the codes have not been standardised, IFRS should consider this missionary task, should it? --- at least for common accounting items. Although I'm sure that there may have differences amongst coporate accounting, public accounting and financial institution accounting, the standard could be categorized as industrial focused. If accounting software have been commercialised, then I don't understand why the common accounting items can not be harmonized or even standardised. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.52.66.11 (talk) 07:55, 14 April 2007 (UTC).

There is not a standarised coding system for the accounts used for IFRS reporting, but there is a standardised taxonomy for the names of IFRS accounts known as International Accounting Standards Expressed in XBRL for Electronic Financial Reporting, which is used a standard format for financial reporting on the internet using XBRL.
Note that the IAS has stated that the taxonomy is not a chart of accounts, as there are a variety of ways to present financial statements which a fixed chart of accounts cannot accomodate. Also the IFRS accounts are primarily used for statutory accounts, not for management accounting, and so you will not find obvious accounts in the IFRS taxonomy that are used, say, to identify expenses (rent, telephone, stationery etc). --Gavin Collins 11:53, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wish this content can be upgraded to harmonized protocols or standards....

Today, I have found an info at

http://www.iasplus.com/standard/ias07.htm

which is very promising for a harmonized protocol of objects-based accounting or even standards and which I assume that ISO may pay attention to.

Hopefully, this kind of exploration will be eventually upgraded to industrial harmonized protocols or even ISO standards and all the relevant commercial accounting software will be regulated by the new evolving measures. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.15.34.252 (talk) 05:42, 15 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Where is the scope of IFRS application located???

One of the issues which confuses me is that

What the definition of Financial Reporting is

OR

Where the standard is applied for???

I was hoping that either of these questions is answered in the beginning of the document but found nil.

Another issue that bothers me is that IFRS looks more like a harmonized protocol than a standard. The reason I say that is:

-- usually, a standard will not only addresse the specifications that should be achieved but also the defined procedures / mehtods to achieve the specifications. However, in IFRS I could not clearly see such expressions.

For example, in IFRS 3(a) it says: This IFRS "requires all business combinations within its scope to be accounted for by applying the purchase method."

Unfornunately, it does not mention where the purchase method is located and how readers can find it, hence the standard operators will easily get lost. People will be wondering which purchase method the document is talking about.

-- even with a protocol, if a specified method is not mentioned, an indication of a particular method, such as a common purchase method, will be provided so that at least the readers will know if the method is common or specified. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.15.34.252 (talk) 08:00, 15 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Structure

I understand IFRS like this

Level 1 Framework

Level 2 Statements <- (level 3) Interpretations

Therefore the Framework is the foundation of where all accounting principles based on. Since there are hundred and thousands of transaction of different types around the world it is impossible to set up rule for each case. Therefore IFRS is principle base. When a transaction occur, prepare of AFS need to ensure transactions that could be classified within those statement prepare according to the statement (transaction within Scope of statement). If those transaction were outside the scope of all written statement, principle within the framework shall apply. Therefore the framework is a "safety net" to catch all exceptions. Therefore I edited those paragraph.

To use "choices" sound not very professional therefore I used the term "alternative" which closely tied up to the terms used IAS 1 par 108 - 115.

My wing hk 10:51, 18 April 2007 (UTC)


This point is specifically addressed in paragraphs 7 to 12 of IAS8, "Accounting Policies Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors". This requires the application of all Standards and Interpretations in all cases where they specifically apply. In the absence of a Standard or Interpretation, an entity is required to use its judgement, in the first instance by seeing whether there are approximately similar requirements, and only then by reference to the Framework.

As a result the Framework is not particularly important in the practical application of IFRS.


Swinnow16 22:03, 24 June 2007 (UTC)


I kind of disagree (please forgive me and keep it professional) with you that "Framework is not particularly important in the practical application of IFRS", Base on the followings:

  • The framework set up the base of future statement development (Stated in the Framework)
  • Statements stated principles to classified transaction to the above 4 classification and give them common "term" and rule as to how to disclose them.
  • You referred to (professional) judgement and where should those judgement base on (if you don't apply the framework)
  • How can I actually disclose those transaction without the classification (at where Balance sheet or Income Statement ...) as from the framework. The classification I refer to is the Asset, Liability, Income or Expense.

My wing hk 08:42, 3 July 2007 (UTC)


Framework

Delete the following An item is recognised in the financial statements when:-

  • it is probable that a future economic benefit will flow to or from an entity and
  • when the item has a cost or value that can be measured with reliability.

This is the asset recognition criteria only not the framework criteria to recognise an transaction, Accrual basis is that criteria and it is mentioned in the document therefore it was deleted.


My wing hk 08:49, 3 July 2007 (UTC)


The deleted piece above ("An item is recognised in the financial statements...") is a paraphrase of paragraph 83 of the Framework. It sets out recognition criteria for any element (asset, liability, equity, income or expense). You may be right to say that the Accrual Basis is more important than the recognition criteria, but I think the recognition criteria should fairly be included!

Swinnow16 18:40, 3 July 2007 (UTC)


The page was a little too mess up, therefore the information was not flow correctly, therefore I totally miss the point, sorry about that. I saw you (Swinnow16) have a lot of interest in this article, I hope that we can keep our effort up and make it great. On the other hand I think I lead this page to discuss a lot about framework, it had evolve to a stage that it should form an article on it's own. If you feel so as well (Swinnow16) I will create a separate page and provide links to that page from this article. You can always contract me by droping message on my user talk page (click on my link and go to discussion), I create a section for all of us feels needs to improve the whole IFRS section. Oh by the way, I modify the structure of the article as well, hope it feels Ok. We still need to do the measurement bit. Keep it up.

My wing hk 13:12, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Current project

The section relates to SME deleted as SME should not be dominated this topic

On February 15, 2007 the IASB issued a new draft, the IFRS for small and medium entities (SMEs).

The IASB admitted that full IFRS compliance is too much of a burden for small and medium size businesses and compiled a simplified set of accounting principles that are appropriate for smaller, non-listed companies. Listed companies, even the small ones, are not eligible for this simplified option. The exposure draft removes choices for accounting treatment, eliminates topics that are not generally relevant to SMEs and simplifies methods for recognition and measurement. Thus, the standard reduces the volume of accounting guidance applicable to SMEs by more than 85 per cent when compared with the full set of IFRSs.(IASB newsletter). The IASB expects to finalize and adopt IFRS for SMEs in the middle of 2008. In practice, adoption of IFRS may be a matter of European Union and national governments. Individual business may draw up their balance sheets according to these standards by choice to provide comparable documents across borders for international investors. For the first time, the IASB will provide standardized translations for an IFRS.

Regards My wing hk 14:39, 19 April 2007 (UTC)


[edit] List of countries using IFRS

I saw this line appear in version history of the page IFRS are used in many parts of the world, including ""in decreasing order of stock market capitalization""the European Union, Russia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore. according to market capitalisation the list should be as follows List of stock exchanges European Union, Hong Kong, Australia, Russia, South Africa, Singapore and Pakistan

Dont forget New Zealand! 203.109.251.118 09:55, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

This section is made redundant, since the IAS maintains a list of country who use or comply with IFRS [1]. --Gavin Collins 11:56, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Flow of the document

As previously stated (see under structure), the article needed to review whether it should create a new topic. Now the article not only need to separate review the separation of IFRS + Framework and a large part in "Features of IFRS" is IAS 1 which also need to be consider to spirit. At the moment, I re-organised the article because personally, IAS 1 should not come before future development which is a huge process (of IASB) at the moment + how IFRS is structured. Whether you want to put it before Framework section is editor's preference. My wing hk 12:51, 12 July 2007 (UTC)


The "Features of IFRS" section actually describes some of the requirements of IFRS. It refers to 18 separate IFRS standards, all with cross references to the standards themselves. It is intended to include a brief description of the valuation requirements for every item on the income statement and balance sheet which has common application and which IFRS addresses. However, I used the heading "features of IFRS" rather than "key requirements of IFRS" so that the article has a neutral point of view.


Swinnow16 22:28, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Links to Big 4 pages

I have re-inserted the links to the IFRS pages of Deloittes, KPMG and Ernst & Young. These had been removed by Hu12 quoting Wikipedia's External Links policy, although oddly the PwC link was left outstanding.

It seems to me that these are valuable links with good quality information with much more detail than we have on the IFRS page of Wikipedia. I do not think that they are "spam" although they are no doubt intended to promote the firms to large corporates. I added some of these links in the first place last year to make sure that all of the Big 4 were represented.

Swinnow16 (talk) 14:23, 6 January 2008 (UTC)