AASB 101 - Presentation of Financial Statements - July 2015
7The following terms are used in this Standard with the meanings specified:
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7 The following terms are used in this Standard with the meanings specified:
Accounting policies are defined in paragraph 5 of AASB 108 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors, and the term is used in this Standard with the same meaning.
General purpose financial statements (referred to as ‘financial statements’) are those intended to meet the needs of users who are not in a position to require an entity to prepare reports tailored to their particular information needs.
Impracticable Applying a requirement is impracticable when the entity cannot apply it after making every reasonable effort to do so.
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) are Standards and Interpretations issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). They comprise:
(a) International Financial Reporting Standards;
(b) International Accounting Standards;
(c) IFRIC Interpretations; and
(d) SIC Interpretations.[\[1\]](#_ftn1)
Material:
Information is material if omitting, misstating or obscuring it could reasonably be expected to influence decisions that the primary users of general purpose financial statements make on the basis of those financial statements, which provide financial information about a specific reporting entity.
Materiality depends on the nature or magnitude of information, or both. An entity assesses whether information, either individually or in combination with other information, is material in the context of its financial statements taken as a whole.
Information is obscured if it is communicated in a way that would have a similar effect for primary users of financial statements to omitting or misstating that information. The following are examples of circumstances that may result in material information being obscured:
(a) information regarding a material item, transaction or other event is disclosed in the financial statements but the language used is vague or unclear;
(b) information regarding a material item, transaction or other event is scattered throughout the financial statements;
(c) dissimilar items, transactions or other events are inappropriately aggregated;
(d) similar items, transactions or other events are inappropriately disaggregated; and
(e) the understandability of the financial statements is reduced as a result of material information being hidden by immaterial information to the extent that a primary user is unable to determine what information is material.
Assessing whether information could reasonably be expected to influence decisions made by the primary users of a specific reporting entity’s general purpose financial statements requires an entity to consider the characteristics of those users while also considering the entity’s own circumstances.