An Executive Guide to IFRS: Content, Costs and Benefits to Business

CHAPTER 5

BALANCE SHEET ITEMS

This chapter deals with standards that address major items in the Statement of Financial Position. It starts with property, plant and equipment, then investment property and leased assets. It then moves to intangible assets and mineral rights. The chapter looks at the standard on impairment and that on assets held for sale. It follows that with the treatment of financial instruments, disclosures of risks related to financial instruments, defining equity, liabilities and contingent liabilities.

In this chapter we will look at the standards governing the accounting treatment of the main balance sheet (Statement of Financial Position) line items for non-current assets, such as tangible assets, intangibles, and financial instruments, and also liabilities, as well as some current items. As noted in the previous chapter, labelling them as balance sheet items does not mean they do not have any impact on the income statement. Equally we will continue to refer to the financial statement as the balance sheet, although the US term statement of financial position is just as appropriate.