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IFRS® Accounting Standards

Business Combinations – Disclosures, Goodwill and Impairment

Summary

The AcSB is participating in the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) initiative to enhance IFRS 3 Business Combinations and IAS 36 Impairment of Assets in Part I of the CPA Canada Handbook – Accounting. The project aims to address the feedback from the post-implementation review of IFRS 3.

The feedback highlighted that investors find insufficient information in the financial statements to understand the performance of an acquired business. Respondents also emphasized that the goodwill impairment test might be ineffective due to untimely recognition. The proposed amendments include enhancing business combination disclosure under IFRS 3 and modifying the goodwill impairment test in IAS 36.

The AcSB’s due process includes ensuring that Canadian entities’ financial reporting needs are considered by the IASB and issuing its own exposure draft for each IASB proposal. Subject to responses to the AcSB’s exposure draft on the appropriateness of the IASB’s proposals for application in Canada, the AcSB expects to incorporate the amendments into Canadian generally accepted accounting principles in accordance with its strategy of adopting IFRS® Accounting Standards for publicly accountable enterprises.

Staff Contact(s)

Jayshal Rajendra Daya, CPA, CA Principal, Accounting Standards Board

Project Status

  • Information gathering

    Research activities to inform the scope of the project, including issuance of the IASB’s Discussion Paper, public outreach, and deliberation of feedback completed prior to December 2022

  • Approving project

    The IASB moved the project from its research program to the standard-setting program in December 2022

  • Engaging Communities

    The IASB issued its Exposure Draft, "Business Combinations—Disclosures, Goodwill and Impairment" in March 2024

    The AcSB issued an Exposure Draft that corresponds to the IASB Exposure Draft in April 2024

  • Deliberating feedback

    The AcSB submitted its response letter to the IASB in July 2024

    The IASB is currently deliberating comments on its Exposure Draft

  • Final pronouncement
Disclaimer

This project summary has been prepared for information purposes only. Decisions reported are tentative and reflect only the current status of discussions on this project, which may change after further Board deliberations. Decisions to publish Handbook material are final only after a formal voting process.