Post–implementation Review – Australian Accounting Standards Board
In June 2010 the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) issued AASB 1053 Application of Tiers of Australian Accounting Standards. This was intended to offer in Australian Accounting Standards a way of permitting most types of entities to reduce the cost of preparing General Purpose Financial Statements in accordance with Accounting Standards yet still provide adequate information for the users of the financial statements.
The AASB was required to prepare a Post-implementation Review (PIR) under the Government’s regulation impact assessment requirements because a compliant Regulation Impact Statement was not prepared before the decision to issue new standards was made. The AASB chose to address this requirement at the same time as undertaking its own routine post-implementation review of the standards.
A PIR was completed by the AASB in October 2017 and was assessed as compliant by the Office of Best Practice Regulation.
The PIR identified:
-
The new Tier 2 reduced disclosure requirements had not delivered the reduced reporting burden outcome expected, with take up of the reporting option very low among eligible companies, including large proprietary companies.
-
A need to refine the principles used in determining the reductions in the disclosure requirements for Tier 2, in order to achieve an appropriate balance between the benefits of financial information to the users and the costs to the preparers of providing that information.
As a result of the findings the AASB has proposed revisions to the Tier 2 reduced disclosure requirements to encourage greater uptake.