Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

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Marek Muc
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Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

Post by Marek Muc »

The IFRS Foundation revised its Due Process Handbook (more info here)

The new Handbook 'clarifies the authority of agenda decisions published by the Interpretations Committee and their role in supporting consistent application of IFRS Standards'. It states that agenda decisions constitute 'explanatory material' and 'an entity is required to apply the applicable IFRS Standard(s), reflecting the explanatory material in an agenda decision'. So it makes the application of agenda decisions kind of mandatory, but at the same time it seems that those agenda decisions won't be part of IFRS and therefore part of the accounting law in local jurisdictions. It seems OK to me and in fact this is how it has worked so far in practice.

Interestingly, the Handbook also states that it is expected that an entity would be entitled to sufficient time to make a necessary accounting policy change resulting from agenda decision. Which is only kind of OK to me, because it basically says that you can prepare FS that are not in line with IFRS and that's OK if you didn't know that until recently...

What are your thoughts on this?
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

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It seemed to me that the ADs answer a question which isn't sufficiently clear in the Standards themselves, or not clear-cut through application of the Conceptual Framework. Therefore they are clearly fundamental 'grey areas'. I don't understand why they are not implemented directly into the Standards themselves , for example adding a new example in the appendices or application guidance. It doesn't seem sensible to have the standards and then a separate long list of clarifications. We can imagine a time in future where there are so many that in practice it is impossible to knowingly adopts the decisions given in ADs.
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Marek Muc
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

Post by Marek Muc »

I agree that it would be better to incorporate agenda decisions in the material accompanying IFRS. Perhaps the IASB doesn't want to change the standards too often
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

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I realise this isn't a perfect solution but the Annotated IFRS Standards, that can be purchased as a physical or e-book or accessed through the eIFRS Subscription, incorporate the Agenda Decisions. Reproducing them against the relevant paragraphs (unfortunately I can't insert an image here to show you as an example).
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

Post by Marek Muc »

Annotated IFRS Standards are indeed useful. And maybe that's (one of) the reason(s) agenda decisions are kept separate? i.e. to encourage buying annotated standards...
annotated IFRS.JPG
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exIFRS
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

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Having been responsible for the Annotated Standards I can tell you it wasn't that Machiavellian. :D
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

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Nice if you can afford the posh versions :lol:

Since I've had to work from home I don't have the posh book versions and just work off ifrs.org basic - don't have the paid access :o
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Marek Muc
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

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why even bother with book versions? :shock: ;)
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

Post by exIFRS »

Marek Muc wrote: 27 Aug 2020, 12:48 why even bother with book versions? :shock: ;)
Such a millennial! I love my paper versions, well thumbed, easy to navigate, tagged and additional notes added in the margins. Just a shame I have to replace them soon.
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

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I wish I were so young :)
I love 'traditional' books for leisure, but at the same time I can't imagine browsing through IFRS in their paper form...
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

Post by JRSB »

yes same I like books - actually it's the same areas of them I go back to a lot.. - you could argue it's faster access than through ifrs.org at any given moment
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

Post by pub_acco »

A little bit confused what ADs are. Are they those enclosed paragraphs I always see in the annotated books? Or do I need to look at something outside of the annotated books?

Btw, I switched to eIFRS when I started working from home and now I can’t go back to the paper book days :lol:
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

Post by exIFRS »

The are the boxed in text. But the annotated standards, for various reasons, can't be treated as definitive. The complete text of the agenda decisions is here: https://www.ifrs.org/supporting-impleme ... adecisions
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Re: Interpretations Committee agenda decisions

Post by pub_acco »

Thank you! A lot of them :shock:
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