Reasons for Issuing AASB 1048Reasons for Issuing AASB 1048

Reasons for Issuing AASB 1048

Australian Accounting Standards that apply to annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2005 include Australian equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). IFRSs comprise Accounting Standards and Interpretations. IFRSs are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), and their adoption in Australia is in accordance with a strategic direction made by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC).

In considering the adoption of IFRSs, the AASB reached the conclusion that it was desirable to issue an Accounting Standard clarifying the status of the pronouncements of the Urgent Issues Group, the UIG Interpretations (previously known as UIG Abstracts), that are approved by the AASB. This Standard also clarifies the status of AASB Interpretations. AASB and UIG Interpretations are referred to collectively in this Standard as Australian Interpretations.

All Australian Interpretations have the same authoritative status and those that are equivalent to the IASB Interpretations must be applied to achieve compliance with IFRSs.

The IASB defines IFRSs as comprising:

(a) International Financial Reporting Standards;

(b) International Accounting Standards (IASs); and

(c) Interpretations originated by the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC) or the former Standing Interpretations Committee (SIC).

The Australian equivalents to IFRSs are:

(a) Accounting Standards issued by the AASB that are equivalent to Standards issued by the IASB, being AASBs 1 – 99 corresponding to the IFRS series and AASBs 101 – 199 corresponding to the IAS series; and

(b) Australian Interpretations issued by the AASB corresponding to the Interpretations adopted by the IASB, as listed in AASB 1048 Interpretation and Application of Standards.

This Standard complements the set of Australian equivalents to IFRSs. This set includes Australian Interpretations that correspond to the IASB Interpretations originated by the IFRIC or the SIC. When considering the most effective approach to implementing the FRC direction, the AASB decided that Australian-source documents were needed to provide equivalents to the IASB Interpretations. Correlation between the Australian Interpretations and the IASB Interpretations is provided in Table 1 of this Standard. This Standard will be re-issued when necessary to bring the correlation up to date.