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AASB 138 - Intangible Assets - August 2015
42Research or development expenditure that:
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42 Research or development expenditure that:
(a) relates to an in-process research or development project acquired separately or in a business combination and recognised as an intangible asset; and
(b) is incurred after the acquisition of that project
shall be accounted for in accordance with paragraphs 54–62.
43 Applying the requirements in paragraphs 54–62 means that subsequent expenditure on an in-process research or development project acquired separately or in a business combination and recognised as an intangible asset is:
(a) recognised as an expense when incurred if it is research expenditure;
(b) recognised as an expense when incurred if it is development expenditure that does not satisfy the criteria for recognition as an intangible asset in paragraph 57; and
(c) added to the carrying amount of the acquired in-process research or development project if it is development expenditure that satisfies the recognition criteria in paragraph 57.
Acquisition by way of a government grant
44 In some cases, an intangible asset may be acquired free of charge, or for nominal consideration, by way of a government grant. This may happen when a government transfers or allocates to an entity intangible assets such as airport landing rights, licences to operate radio or television stations, import licences or quotas or rights to access other restricted resources. In accordance with AASB 120 Accounting for Government Grants and Disclosure of Government Assistance, an entity may choose to recognise both the intangible asset and the grant initially at fair value.[\[2\]](#_ftn2) If an entity chooses not to recognise the asset initially at fair value, the entity recognises the asset initially at a nominal amount (the other treatment permitted by AASB 120) plus any expenditure that is directly attributable to preparing the asset for its intended use.
Exchanges of assets
45 One or more intangible assets may be acquired in exchange for a non-monetary asset or assets, or a combination of monetary and non-monetary assets. The following discussion refers simply to an exchange of one non-monetary asset for another, but it also applies to all exchanges described in the preceding sentence. The cost of such an intangible asset is measured at fair value unless (a) the exchange transaction lacks commercial substance or (b) the fair value of neither the asset received nor the asset given up is reliably measurable. The acquired asset is measured in this way even if an entity cannot immediately derecognise the asset given up. If the acquired asset is not measured at fair value, its cost is measured at the carrying amount of the asset given up.
46 An entity determines whether an exchange transaction has commercial substance by considering the extent to which its future cash flows are expected to change as a result of the transaction. An exchange transaction has commercial substance if:
(a) the configuration (ie risk, timing and amount) of the cash flows of the asset received differs from the configuration of the cash flows of the asset transferred; or
(b) the entity-specific value of the portion of the entity’s operations affected by the transaction changes as a result of the exchange; and
(c) the difference in (a) or (b) is significant relative to the fair value of the assets exchanged.
For the purpose of determining whether an exchange transaction has commercial substance, the entity-specific value of the portion of the entity’s operations affected by the transaction shall reflect post-tax cash flows. The result of these analyses may be clear without an entity having to perform detailed calculations.
47 Paragraph 21(b) specifies that a condition for the recognition of an intangible asset is that the cost of the asset can be measured reliably. The fair value of an intangible asset is reliably measurable if (a) the variability in the range of reasonable fair value measurements is not significant for that asset or (b) the probabilities of the various estimates within the range can be reasonably assessed and used when measuring fair value. If an entity is able to measure reliably the fair value of either the asset received or the asset given up, then the fair value of the asset given up is used to measure cost unless the fair value of the asset received is more clearly evident.