Executive summary

On April 9, 2024, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published a new standard, its first since 2017. The new standard, IFRS 18 ‘Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements’ (the Standard) replaces IAS 1 ‘Presentation of Financial Statements’ and will impact every reporting entity that currently uses International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The objective of the Standard is to improve how information is communicated in an entity’s financial statements, particularly in the statement of profit or loss and in its notes to the financial statements.

Background

The release of the Standard is the final stage of the Primary Financial Statements project, which came about due to the lack of detailed requirements in IAS 1 for the following areas:

  • the classification of income and expenses in the statement of profit or loss
  • the presentation of subtotals in the statement of profit or loss, and
  • the aggregation and disaggregation of information presented in the primary financial statements or disclosed in the notes.

The Standard is effective from annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2027, and must be applied retrospectively. While the effective date is a while away, we would encourage entities to start considering the impact sooner rather than later.