Interpretation and Application of UK GAAP: For Accounting Periods Commencing On or After 1 January 2015

Foreword

When thinking about new UK GAAP the Chinese curse comes to mind, ‘May you live in interesting times’, because applying new UK GAAP will be interesting times. Many people will underestimate the size of the learning curve ahead of them. Yes, the standards are much shorter, easier to read and there are many exemptions but that does not mean that there are not many differences from the previous UK standards.

In my professional career there have been lots of changes to the UK accounting standards; indeed I trained under SSAP 2! The difference this time is that everything is changing at the same time. This is a ‘big bang’ move to a new you approach. There are lots of exciting headline changes in areas such as financial instruments and investment properties but perhaps more importantly there is plenty of ‘devil in the detail’.

Ultimately, this is not a change to old UK GAAP, it is a move to something completely different, based upon standards written by a standard setting committee based outside of the UK. The new standards are not a ‘copy and paste’ job from what went before, so concentrating on what has changed can be futile. Instead, focus on the new standards in their entirety.

I say all of this not to spread doom and gloom but to calibrate your expectations of the journey ahead.

However, having said that, I have assumed that you are only familiar with old UK GAAP. If you are a child of IFRS then your learning curve will be much shorter and less steep. After all, new UK ...