Règles et principes comptables

Accounting rules and principles

1 Introduction

There have been major changes in financial reporting in recent years. Most

obvious is the continuing adoption of IFRS worldwide. Many territories have been

using IFRS for some years, and more are planning to come on stream from 2012.

For the latest information on countries’ transition to IFRS, visit pwc.com/usifrs

and see ‘Interactive IFRS adoption by country map’.

An important recent development is the extent to which IFRS is affected by

politics. The issues with Greek debt, the problems in the banking sector and the

attempts of politicians to resolve these questions have resulted in pressure on

standard-setters to amend their standards, primarily those on financial

instruments. This pressure is unlikely to disappear, at least in the short term. The

IASB is working hard to respond to this; we can therefore expect a continued

stream of changes to the standards in the next few months and years.

2 Accounting principles and applicability of IFRS

The IASB has the authority to set IFRSs and to approve interpretations of those

standards.

IFRSs are intended to be applied by profit-orientated entities. These entities’

financial statements give information about performance, position and cash flow

that is useful to a range of users in making financial decisions. These users

include shareholders, creditors, employees and the general public. A complete set

of financial statements includes a:

• balance sheet (statement of financial position);

• statement of comprehensive income;

• statement of cash flows;

• description of accounting policies; and

• notes to the financial statements.

The concepts underlying accounting practices under IFRS are set out in the IASB’s

‘Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting’ issued in September 2010 (the

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Framework). It supersedes the ‘Framework for the preparation and presentation

of financial statements’ (the Framework (1989)). The Conceptual Framework

covers:

• Objectives of general purpose financial reporting, including information about

a reporting entity’s economic resources and claims.

• The reporting entity (in the process of being updated).

• Qualitative characteristics of useful financial information of relevance and

faithful representation and the enhancing qualitative characteristics of

comparability, verifiability, timeliness and understandability.

The remaining text of the 1989 Framework (in the process of being updated),

which includes:

• Underlying assumption, the going concern convention.

• Elements of financial statements, including financial position (assets,

liabilities and equity) and performance (income and expenses).

• Recognition of elements, including probability of future benefit, reliability of

measurement and recognition of assets, liabilities, income and expenses.

• Measurement of elements, including a discussion on historical cost and its

alternatives.

Concepts of capital and its maintenance. For the areas of the Conceptual

Framework that are being updated, the IASB has published an exposure draft on

the reporting entity and a discussion paper of the remaining sections; including

elements of financial statements, recognition and derecognition, the distinction

between equity and liabilities, measurement, presentation and disclosure, and

fundamental concepts (including business model, unit of account, going concern

and capital maintenance).

3 First-time adoption of IFRS – IFRS 1

An entity moving from national GAAP to IFRS should apply the requirements of

IFRS 1. It applies to an entity’s first IFRS financial statements and the interim

reports presented under IAS 34, ‘Interim financial reporting’, that are part of that

period. It also applies to entities under ‘repeated first-time application’. The basic

requirement is for full retrospective application of all IFRSs effective at the

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reporting date. However, there are a number of optional exemptions and

mandatory exceptions to the requirement for retrospective application.

The exemptions cover standards for which the IASB considers that retrospective

application could prove too difficult or could result in a cost likely to exceed any

benefits to users. The exemptions are optional. Any, all or none of the exemptions

may

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