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What is IFRS ( International Financial Reporting Standard)? 

IFRS(International Financial Reporting Standards), which establishes principles for financial transactions and accounting events that are displayed in financial statements globally, provides essential standards in this area. 

 

The ISSB and IASB are responsible for developing International Financial Reporting Standards and Sustainability Disclosure Standards, respectively. 

 

In order to foster global economic growth, transparency, accountability, and efficiency work together. London, England serves as the IFRS’s administrative center. 

For annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2023, the version of IFRS 17 is applicable. It demands that a corporation must evaluate insurance contracts using current estimates. It takes into account the timing of cash flows and uncertainty surrounding insurance contracts. This will demonstrate clear and comprehensive information regarding a company’s financial status and risk.

List Of IFRS Standards : 

 1) First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards

It sets out the procedures that an entity must follow when it adopts International Financial Reporting Standards for the first time as the basis for preparing its general-purpose financial statements. This IFRS grants limited exemptions from the general requirement to comply with each International Financial Reporting Standard effective at the end of its first IFRS reporting period. There are many benefits of implementing IFRS in India in terms of economy, industry, and investors.

2) Share-Based Payment

It requires an entity to recognize share-based payment transactions (for example: granted shares, share options, or share appreciation rights) in its financial statements, also including transactions with employees or other parties to be settled in cash, other assets, or equity instruments of the entity. Specific requirements are included for equity-settled and cash-settled share-based payment transactions, as well as those where the entity or supplier has a choice of cash or equity instruments.

3) Business Combinations

It outlines the accounting when an acquirer obtains control of a business (for example acquisition or merger). Such business combinations are accounted for using the ‘acquisition method’, which generally requires assets acquired and liabilities assumed to be measured at their fair values at the acquisition date. The main advantage of IFRS is it facilitates the easy comparison of different companies, as data is presented on the same basis.

4) Insurance Contracts

It applies, with limited exceptions, to all insurance contracts (including reinsurance contracts) that an entity issues and to reinsurance contracts that it holds. In light of the International Accounting Standard Board’s comprehensive project on insurance contracts, the standard provides a temporary exemption from the requirements of some other IFRSs, including the requirement to consider International Accounting Standard- 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors when selecting accounting policies for insurance contracts

5) Non-current Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations

It outlines how to account for non-current assets held for sale (or for distribution to owners). In general terms, assets held for sale are not depreciated, are measured at the lower of carrying amount and fair value fewer costs to sell, and are presented separately in the statement of financial position. Specific disclosures are also required for discontinued operations and disposals of non-current assets.

6) Exploration for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources

It has the effect of allowing entities to adopt the standard for the first time to use accounting policies for exploration and evaluation of assets that were applied before adopting international financial reporting standards. It also modifies impairment testing of exploration and evaluation assets by introducing different impairment indicators and allowing the carrying amount to be tested at an aggregate level (not greater than a segment).

7) Financial Instruments: Disclosures

It requires the disclosure of information about the significance of financial instruments to an entity, and the nature and extent of risks arising from those financial instruments, both in qualitative and quantitative terms. Specific disclosures are required in relation to transferred financial assets and a number of other matters.

8)Operating Segments

It requires particular lasses of entities (essentially those with publicly traded securities) to disclose information about their operating segments, products and services, the geographical areas in which they operate, and their major customers. Information is based on internal management reports, both in the identification of operating segments and measurement of disclosed segment information.

9) Financial Instruments

It is the International Accounting Standard Board’s replacement of International Accounting Standard 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement. It includes requirements for recognition and measurement, impairment, recognition, and general hedge accounting.

10) Consolidated Financial Statements

It outlines the requirements for the preparation and presentation of consolidated financial statements, requiring entities to consolidate entities it controls. Control requires exposure or rights to variable returns and the ability to affect those returns through power over an investee.

11) Joint Arrangements

It outlines the accounting by entities that jointly control an arrangement. Joint control involves the contractually agreed sharing of control and arrangements subject to joint control are classified as either a joint venture; representing a share of net assets and equity accounted or a joint operation; representing rights to assets and obligations for liabilities, accounted for accordingly.

12) Disclosure of Interests in Other Entities

It is a consolidated disclosure standard requiring a wide range of disclosures about an entity’s interests in subsidiaries, joint arrangements, associates and unconsolidated ‘structured entities’. Disclosures are presented as a series of objectives, with detailed guidance on satisfying those objectives.

13) Fair Value Measurement

It applies to IFRSs that require or permit fair value measurements or disclosures and provides a single IFRS framework for measuring fair value and requires disclosures about fair value measurement. The Standard defines fair value on the basis of an exit price notion and uses a fair value hierarchy, which results in a market-based rather than entity-specific measurement.

14)Regulatory Deferral Accounts

It permits an entity that is a first-time adopter of International Financial Reporting Standards to continue to account, with some limited changes, for ‘regulatory deferral account balances in accordance with its previous GAAP, both on initial adoption of IFRS and in subsequent financial statements. Regulatory deferral account balances, and movements in them, are presented separately in the statement of financial position and statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income, and specific disclosures are required.

15) Revenue From Contract

It specifies how and when an IFRS reporter will recognize revenue as well as requiring such entities to provide users of financial statements with more informative, relevant disclosures. The standard provides a single, principles-based five-step model to be applied to all contracts with customers. It applies to an annual reporting period beginning on or after 1 January 2018.

16) Lease Accounting

It specifies how an International Financial Reporting Standards reporter will recognize, measure, present, and disclose leases. The standard provides a single lessee accounting model, requiring lessees to recognize assets and liabilities for all leases unless the lease term is 12 months or less or the underlying asset has a low value. Lessors continue to classify leases as operating or finance, with IFRS 16’s approach to lessor accounting substantially unchanged from its predecessor, International Accounting Standard- 17. It applies to annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2019.

17) Insurance Contract

IFRS 17 is applicable for yearly reporting periods starting on or after 1st January 2021. This must be accommodated with IFRS 9 and IFRS 15 from the list of International Financial Reporting Standards standards, permitted application earlier. The insurance contract consists of both a service and a financial instrument contracts. Many such insurance contracts will ultimately generate cash flow with considerable variability over a long span. 

These were the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) issued by IASB. And the International Accounting Standards (IAS) were issued by the predecessor body IASC between the years 1973 and 2001. In our country, Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) are issued by the Accounting Standard Board to converge Indian GAAP with International Financial Accounting Standards (IFRS). Both International Financial Reporting Standards and IAS continue to form a force.

The listing of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles as of IAS is as follows:

IAS 1: Presentation of Financial Statements

IAS 1 is about the overall requirements for the arrangement of the structure of financial statements, guidelines, and the minimum requirements for their content. The elements consist of presenting the complete set of financial statements yearly and incorporating the amounts for the preceding year. This is another addition to the list of IFRS standards and IAS standards. 

IAS 2: Inventories

The second IAS in the IAS and IFRS list is about the guidance for the determination of the cost formulas of inventories and subsequent recognizing the cost as an expense. This can include any write-down to any other realizable value. 

IAS 7: Statement of Cash Flows

In the list of IFRS standards and IAS standards, the guidelines of how to present data in a cash flow statement are described in the IAS 7. The information about the cash flow is the unit’s cash and cash equivalents altered during this period. 

IAS 8: The Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors

The IAS 8 consists of the criteria for choosing and changing accounting policies along with the accounting treatment, changes in the estimates of the accounting, the disclosure of alterations in the accounting policies, and the correction of errors. So when an International Financial Reporting Standards interpretation specifically refers to a transaction, other event or condition, then an entity must use that standard. 

IAS 10: Events after the Reporting Period

The IAS 10 in the list of IFRS standards suggest the situations when an enterprise should adjust its financial statements for after the reporting period events. And the other guideline as per IAS 10 is the disclosure the entity should provide about the time when the financial statements were authorized for issue and also about the events post reporting time. 

IAS 11: Construction Contracts

In the list of IFRS standards, the IAS 11 suggests about the accounting regarding revenue treatment and the costs associated with construction contracts. The IAS 11 requires the outcome of a construction contract, reliable estimation, and the contract expenses about the stage of completion at the end of reporting time.

IAS 12: Income Taxes

The IAS 12 in the International Financial Reporting Standards list prescribes the accounting solutions for income taxes that include all domestic and foreign taxes, which can be based on taxable profits.IAS 12 requirements include the step for an entity to recognize a deferred tax liability or a deferred tax asset for temporary differences with some exceptions.

IAS 16: Property, Plant, and Equipment

In the list of IFRS standards, the IAS 16 establishes principles about the recognition of property, plant, and equipment as assets of an entity to measure the carrying amounts and the measuring of the depreciation charges and impairment losses related to them. 

IAS 17: Leases

IAS 16 is superseded by International Financial Reporting Standards 15 from the list of IFRS standards. The IAS 17 is classified into two types, a finance lease and an operating lease. The Finance lease is for if the contract transfers considerably, then all the risks and rewards are to be incidental to ownership. And the operating lease is for if the lease does not transfer significantly, then also all the risks and rewards are incidental to ownership.

IAS 18: Revenue

The IAS 18 is superseded by IFRS 15 of the International Financial Reporting Standards list. IAS 18 addresses the right moment and how to recognize and measure revenue. What is Revenue? It is the gross inflow of economic benefits acquired by ordinary activities of an entity during an estimated period. IAS 18 applies to the revenues from the events of sales of goods, the rendering of services, and the use of entity assets yielding interests, royalties, dividends, by others.

IAS 19: Employee Benefits

In the list of IFRS standards and IAS standards, the IAS 19 applies for all types of employee benefits except for the share-based payment type, for International Financial Reporting Standards 2 applies to share-based payment types of employee benefits. IAS 19 in the list of IFRS standards requires the enterprise to recognize a contract when an employee has provided service in trade for future employee benefits and the recognition for an expense when the entity acquires economic benefits arising for the services offered by the employees in exchange for employee perks.

IAS 20: Accounting for Government grants and the Disclosure of Government Assistance

The IAS 20 in the IAS and IFRS list is about the grants provided by the government, which are transfers of resources given to an enterprise in return for a past or future agreements with specific conditions relating to the operating activities of the enterprise. The economic benefit specifically provided to an entity or range of entities qualifying under specific criteria is called government support.

IAS 21: Effects of the Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates

The IAS 21 prescribes how an entity should carry on foreign activities in two ways. This may consist of transactions using foreign currencies, or it may include some international business operations. The principles issued by the IAS 21 in the IFRS standards list are used by the exchange rate/s to report the effects of the changes in it for financial statements.

IAS 23: Borrowing Costs

In the IAS and IFRS list, IAS 23 provides guidance on the process for the enterprises to measure borrowing costs, particularly the cost of acquisition and construction or production that are funded by an entity’s general borrowings.  

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