IAS 19 International Financial Reporting Standards (Ifrss
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IAS 19 International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) together with their accompanying documents are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB): 30 Cannon Street, London, EC4M 6XH, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0)20 7246 6410 Fax: +44 (0)20 7246 6411 Email: [email protected] Web: www.ifrs.org Copyright © 2011 IFRS Foundation IFRSs (which include International Accounting Standards and Interpretations) are copyright of the IFRS Foundation. The authoritative text of IFRSs is that issued by the IASB in the English language. Copies may be obtained from the IFRS Foundation Publications Department. Please address publication and copyright matters to: IFRS Foundation Publications Department 30 Cannon Street, London, EC4M 6XH, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0)20 7332 2730 Fax: +44 (0)20 7332 2749 Email: [email protected] Web: www.ifrs.org All rights reserved. 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The IFRS Foundation logo, the IASB logo, the IFRS for SMEs logo, the ‘Hexagon Device’, ‘IFRS Foundation’, ‘eIFRS’, ‘IAS’, ‘IASB’, ‘IASC Foundation’, ‘IASCF’, ‘IFRS for SMEs’, ‘IASs’, ‘IFRS’, ‘IFRSs’, ‘International Accounting Standards’ and ‘International Financial Reporting Standards’ are Trade Marks of the IFRS Foundation © IFRS Foundation 1 IAS 19 Approval by the Board of Actuarial Gains and Losses, Group Plans and Disclosures (Amendment to IAS 19) issued in December 2004 Actuarial Gains and Losses, Group Plans and Disclosures (Amendment to IAS 19) was approved for issue by twelve of the fourteen members of the International Accounting Standards Board. Messrs Leisenring and Yamada dissented. Their dissenting opinions are set out after the Basis for Conclusions. Sir David Tweedie Chairman Thomas E Jones Vice-Chairman Mary E Barth Hans-Georg Bruns Anthony T Cope Jan Engström Robert P Garnett Gilbert Gélard James J Leisenring Warren J McGregor Patricia L O’Malley John T Smith Geoffrey Whittington Tatsumi Yamada 2 © IFRS Foundation IAS 19 Approval by the Board of IAS 19 issued in June 2011 International Accounting Standard 19 Employee Benefits (as amended in 2011) was approved for issue by thirteen of the fifteen members of the International Accounting Standards Board. Messrs Engström and Yamada dissented. Their dissenting opinions are set out after the Basis for Conclusions. Sir David Tweedie Chairman Stephen Cooper Philippe Danjou Jan Engström Patrick Finnegan Amaro Luiz de Oliveira Gomes Prabhakar Kalavacherla Elke König Patricia McConnell Warren J McGregor Paul Pacter Darrel Scott John T Smith Tatsumi Yamada Wei-Guo Zhang © IFRS Foundation 3 IAS 19 BC CONTENTS BASIS FOR CONCLUSIONS ON IAS 19 EMPLOYEE BENEFITS Paragraphs INTRODUCTION BC1–BC2 AMENDMENTS MADE IN 2011 BC3–BC11 Matters not addressed as part of the limited scope project BC12–BC13 Employee Benefits Working Group BC14–BC15 CLASSIFICATION OF BENEFITS BC16–BC24 Short-term employee benefits: amendments issued in 2011 BC16–BC21 Long-term employee benefits: exposure draft published in 2010 BC22–BC24 SHORT-TERM EMPLOYEE BENEFITS BC25–BC27 Paid absences BC25–BC27 POST-EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS BC28–BC252 Distinction between defined contribution plans and defined benefit plans BC28–BC30 Defined contribution plans BC28–BC29 Defined benefit plans: amendments issued in 2011 BC30 Multi-employer plans and state plans BC31–BC51 Multi-employer plans: amendments issued in 2004 BC35–BC38 Multi-employer plans: exposure draft published in 2010 BC39 Group plans: amendments issued in 2004 BC40–BC50 State plan and group plan disclosures: amendments issued in 2011 BC51 Defined benefit plans: recognition and measurement BC52–BC199 Measurement date BC56–BC57 Interim reporting: effects of the amendments issued in 2011 BC58–BC64 Recognition: amendments issued in 2011 BC65–BC100 The asset ceiling BC101–BC102 An additional minimum liability BC103–BC105 Recognition of defined benefit cost as part of an asset: amendments issued in 2011 BC106–BC107 Actuarial valuation method BC108–BC113 Attributing benefit to periods of service BC114–BC116 Attributing benefit to periods of service: exposure draft published in 2010 BC117–BC120 4 © IFRS Foundation IAS 19 BC Actuarial assumptions—tax payable by the plan: amendments issued in 2011 BC121–BC124 Actuarial assumptions—administration costs: amendments issued in 2011 BC125–BC128 Actuarial assumptions—discount rate BC129–BC137 Actuarial assumptions—discount rate: exposure draft published in 2009 BC138–BC139 Actuarial assumptions—salaries, benefits and medical costs BC140–BC141 Actuarial assumptions—mortality: amendments issued in 2011 BC142 Actuarial assumptions—risk-sharing: amendments issued in 2011 BC143–BC150 Curtailments and settlements BC151 Plan amendments, curtailments and settlements: amendments issued in 2011 BC152–BC173 Plan assets BC174–BC177 Plan assets: amendments issued in 2000 BC178–BC190 Plan assets—measurement BC191–BC194 Reimbursements: amendments issued in 2000 BC195–BC199 Defined benefit plans—presentation of assets and liabilities BC200 Defined benefit plans—presentation of defined benefit cost: amendments issued in 2011 BC201–BC202 Defined benefit plans—disclosures: amendments issued in 2011 BC203–BC252 The Board’s approach to disclosures about defined benefit plans BC207–BC211 Selecting disclosure objectives BC212–BC214 Characteristics of the defined benefit plan and amounts in the financial statements BC215–BC228 Amount, timing and uncertainty of future cash flows BC229–BC243 Other disclosures considered but rejected by the Board BC244 Multi-employer plans BC245–BC252 OTHER LONG-TERM EMPLOYEE BENEFITS BC253 Death-in-service benefits BC253 TERMINATION BENEFITS: AMENDMENTS ISSUED IN 2011 BC254–BC261 Benefits payable in exchange for services BC256–BC257 Recognition BC258–BC260 Measurement BC261 INTERACTION BETWEEN PLAN AMENDMENTS, CURTAILMENTS, SETTLEMENTS, TERMINATION BENEFITS AND RESTRUCTURING COSTS BC262–BC268 © IFRS Foundation 5 IAS 19 BC TRANSITION BC269–BC271 First-time adopters BC270 Early application BC271 SUMMARY OF CHANGES FROM THE 2010 ED AND 2005 ED: AMENDMENTS ISSUED IN 2011 BC272–BC273 CONVERGENCE WITH US GAAP: AMENDMENTS ISSUED IN 2011 BC274–BC279 Multi-employer plan disclosures BC274 Recognition of defined benefit cost BC275–BC276 Termination benefits BC277–BC279 COST-BENEFIT CONSIDERATIONS: AMENDMENTS ISSUED IN 2011 BC280–BC284 APPENDIX Amendments to the Basis for Conclusions on other IFRSs DISSENTING OPINIONS 6 © IFRS Foundation IAS 19 BC Basis for Conclusions on IAS 19 Employee Benefits Introduction BC1 This Basis for Conclusions summarises the International Accounting Standards Board’s considerations in reaching its conclusions on IAS 19 Employee Benefits. Individual Board members gave greater weight to some factors than to others. BC2 The Board’s predecessor, the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), approved IAS 19 Employee Benefits in 1998, replacing a previous version of the standard. IASC developed the revision of IAS 19 in 1998 following its consideration of the responses to its exposure draft E54 Employee Benefits published in 1996. Since that date, IASC and the Board have made the following amendments that are still relevant: (a) In October 2000 IASC extended the definition of plan assets (see paragraphs BC178–BC190) and introduced recognition and measurement requirements for reimbursements (see paragraphs BC195–BC199). (b) In December 2004 the Board amended the accounting for multi-employer plans and group plans (see paragraphs BC35–BC38 and BC40–BC50). (c) In June 2011 the Board eliminated previous options for deferred recognition of changes in the net defined benefit liability (asset), amended where those changes should be recognised, amended the disclosure requirements for defined benefit plans and multi-employer plans, and made a number of other amendments (see paragraphs BC3–BC13). Amendments made in 2011 BC3 Accounting for post-employment benefit promises is an important financial reporting issue. Anecdotal evidence and academic research suggested that many users of financial statements did not fully understand the information that entities provided about post-employment benefits under the requirements of IAS 19 before the amendments made in 2011. Both users and preparers of financial statements criticised those accounting requirements for failing to provide high quality, transparent information about post-employment benefits. For example, delays in the recognition of gains and losses give rise to misleading amounts in the statement of financial position and the existence of various options for recognising gains and losses and a lack of clarity in the definitions lead to poor comparability. BC4 In July 2006 the Board added to its agenda a project on the accounting for post- employment benefit promises in response to calls for a comprehensive review of the accounting for post-employment benefit promises to improve the quality and © IFRS Foundation 7 IAS 19 BC transparency of financial statements. However, a comprehensive project to address all areas of post-employment benefit accounting could take many years to complete. Nevertheless, the Board recognised a short-term need to provide users of financial statements with better information about post-employment benefit promises.