IASB to tackle new projects on work plan

The International Accounting Standards Board convened a meeting this week to discuss its approach to adding new projects to its work plan, along with ongoing projects on the equity method of accounting and intangible assets.

The potential projects to be added to the work plan include operating segments, pollutant pricing mechanisms, hyperinflationary accounting and  cryptoassets. The IASB wouldn't start working on these projects immediately, according to an IASB official who spoke to Accounting Today ahead of the meeting, but in the next year or two when it has more capacity to take on the work. The IASB will reach out to its stakeholders to find out what their priorities are for new International Financial Reporting Standards.

In the U.S., the Financial Accounting Standards Board recently decided to add a project to its technical agenda to clarify whether certain digital assets may be classified as cash equivalents and is discussing the accounting for transfers of digital assets, including wrapped tokens and receipt tokens at a meeting Wednesday, building on the crypto asset standard it issued in 2023 for U.S. GAAP. 

The IASB is likely to take a different approach, according to the official, looking at issues such as stablecoins and whether they could be considered cash equivalents, and exactly how they might be accounted. Some stakeholders might want the IASB to consider more holistically any kinds of digital assets or tokens that are issued and whether they should be accounted for as liabilities or equity. 

Hyperinflationary accounting is also a topic of importance in countries that have experienced high inflation such as Argentina, Turkey, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. The IASB might decide to do a holistic project or a smaller, narrower piece of research. On the topic of pollutant pricing mechanisms, the project might cover emissions trading schemes or carbon credit schemes. That too could either turn into a larger holistic project or a smaller project focusing on voluntary compliance schemes. There too, the IASB might leverage FASB's work on its proposed accounting standards update for environmental credits.

Also on the agenda for the IASB was a discussion of several papers prepared by staff members on the equity method of accounting, including measurement of the cost of an associate, purchases of an additional ownership interest and disposal of a portion of an investment in an associate. The project isn't proposing any fundamental changes to the equity method of accounting, but trying to resolve some practical application questions on the issues discussed in the staff papers.

Staff members also provided an oral update on the IASB's intangible assets project. The team has been working on consulting with stakeholders to get their input and recently had a discussion with a consultative group of investors to ask for specifics about what information they would like to see on intangible assets and how they would use that information. The IASB is also talking to other consultative groups of preparers and national standard-setters to hear their feedback on intangible assets to gather more evidence and more clearly define exactly what it will do on the project.