The Accounting Standards Board (AcSB) is participating in the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) project to amend IFRS 16 Leases.
The objective of this project is to continue providing lessees with practical relief during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic while enabling them to continue providing useful information about their leases to users of financial statements. The proposed amendment to IFRS 16 would extend the availability of the exemption by one year to June 30, 2022. This means that the exemption applies to rent concessions for which any reduction in lease payments affects only payments originally due on or before June 30, 2022, provided the other conditions in IFRS 16 for applying the practical expedient are met.
The AcSB’s due process includes ensuring that Canadian entities’ financial reporting needs are considered by the IASB and issuing the AcSB’s own exposure draft on each IASB proposal. Subject to the responses to the AcSB’s exposure draft on whether the IASB’s proposals are appropriate for application in Canada, the AcSB expects that the amendments will be incorporated into Canadian GAAP. This is in accordance with the AcSB’s strategy of adopting IFRSs for publicly accountable enterprises.