International Financial Reporting Standards - Requirements of IFRS

Requirements of IFRS

See Requirements of IFRS. IFRS financial statements consist of (IAS1.8)

• a Statement of Financial Position
• a Statement of Comprehensive Income separate statements comprising an Income Statement and separately a Statement of Comprehensive Income, which reconciles Profit or Loss on the Income statement to total comprehensive income
• a Statement of Changes in Equity (SOCE)
• a Cash Flow Statement or Statement of Cash Flows
• notes, including a summary of the significant accounting policies

Comparative information is required for the prior reporting period (IAS 1.36). An entity preparing IFRS accounts for the first time must apply IFRS in full for the current and comparative period although there are transitional exemptions (IFRS1.7).

On 6 September 2007, the IASB issued a revised IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements. The main changes from the previous version are to require that an entity must:

• present all non-owner changes in equity (that is, 'comprehensive income' ) either in one Statement of comprehensive income or in two statements (a separate income statement and a statement of comprehensive income). Components of comprehensive income may not be presented in the Statement of changes in equity.
• present a statement of financial position (balance sheet) as at the beginning of the earliest comparative period in a complete set of financial statements when the entity applies the new standard.
• present a statement of cash flow.
• make necessary disclosure by the way of a note.

The revised IAS 1 is effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2009. Early adoption is permitted.