Reasons for Issuing AASB 1048

Reasons for Issuing AASB 1048

The Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) is implementing the directive of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to adopt the Standards of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) for application to reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2005. In considering the adoption of the Standards of the IASB, 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.

All UIG Interpretations have the same authoritative status and those that are equivalent to the IASB Interpretations must be applied to achieve compliance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) of the IASB.

The IASB defines IFRSs as comprising:

(a) International Financial Reporting Standards;

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

Before identifying the main features of this Standard, the adoption of the IASB Standards is described and the need for a ‘service Standard’ like this is explained.