IASB had issued amendments to IAS-1 presentation of financial statements in Jan 2020 with an effective implementation date of 1st Jan 2022.
Considering the recent crisis posed by COVID-19, IASB issued the exposure draft on 4th May 2020 to deffer the effective date from 1st Jan 2022 to 1st Jan 2023 with an earlier application permitted. Exposure draft shall be valid for 30 days, till 03rd June 2020. Exposure draft does not change any material of the earlier amendment but just change the effective date.
This step is one of series of steps which IASB has taken on request of stakeholders to provide financial reporting relief. Another exposure draft related to IFRS 16 leases is also under commenting period which shall provide lessees a practical expedient from considering changes in lease considerations a lease modifications. We covered this in our IFRS 16 post that how it is providing relief in the current scenario.
Deferring the implementation date of IAS-1 is providing ample relief to organisations. IAS-1 amendment had pushed organisations to revisit their loan covenants as amendment had affected the classification of their liabilities based on the covenants. IASB believes that changing such covenants is expected to take much more time than earlier expected so that why deferring the implementation date shall provide relief to affected entities.
How IAS-1 amendment had affected is explained below.
Amendments in IAS-1 during Jan 2020
The amendment is related to classification of liabilities in current and non-current portions in balance sheet. The classification is much important to many entities as these affect key ratios including current and debt ratios. Financial lenders usually use these ratios as covenants in their loan agreements.
Following amendments were made
(a) Changes were made in para 69d and 73. Instead of "unconditional right" and "management intentions", amendment call that a liability can be considered non-current liability if entity has "right" to deffer settlement at the "reporting date".
(b) 'Intention of entity is irrelevant (Para 73)' when deciding the liability type. for example a liability shall be classified a non-current liability even in case company intends to choose prepayment option after the reporting date. Till company does not have right to deffer payment on reporting date, liability shall be considered current.
(c) Word "unconditional right" is placed with "right" and new para is added to clarify that if right to settle settlement is conditional on compliance with covenants then right exist if entity meet the covenants requirements and a right doesn't exist if entity doesn't meet covenant requirement.
(d) World settlement has also been defined in the amendment. It says that transfer to counter party to extinguish the liability could be of cash, goods/services or the entity's own equity instruments.
(e) Standard also clarified when counter party conversion option affect classification as current and non-current liability. Classification shall not change if it results in extinguishment of liability by transferring entities' own equity and entity recognizes the option separately as equity instrument.
Example
Below is one of the examples which explain how amendment affected the classification of liabilities.
Entity x is preparing financial for the year end Dec 20x0. X has 7 years of loan. Loan covenant says that bank has the right to claim back loan amount in case X doesn't meet specific debt to equity ratio. Covenant call for test to be done on 31st March of each year.
Now when deciding on classification of liabilities on Dec 20x0, Bank shall prepare debt to equity ratio. If it meets the bank requirements than X can report it as non-current liability. In case X exceeds specific debt to equity ratio than X shall report it as current liability since right to deffer payment is with bank in this case.
Although bank shall perform its test on 31st March of the following year but it is irrelevant as on 31st Dec 20x0 and is a mandatory requirement of IAS-1.
Apart from many other factors, IASB extension of implementation date has given some time to entities which were having such issues and are in negotiation with lenders to change the specific covenants.
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