Earlier this week, the Ontario Securities Commission published an online guide to assist issuers in preparing their first IFRS interim financial report. The issues and tips reviewed in the guide include: (i) changes to acceptable accounting principles; (ii) discussion of a 30 day filing extension for an issuer's first IFRS interim report; (iii) the consequences of missing financial statement filing deadlines, which may include a cease trade order; (iv) suggested financial statement notes to include in the first IFRS interim financial report ; and (v) required reconciliations under IFRS 1, including an example of an equity reconciliation. According to the OSC, its goal in publishing the guide is "to help facilitate a smooth regulatory transition, which will benefit both issuers, their advisors and their investors".
As discussed in our post of October 1, the CSA have published final amendments to NI 52-107 Acceptable Accounting Principles and Auditing Standards and other related instruments and policies relating to the transition to IFRS for reporting issuers and registrants. These amendments take effect on January 1, 2011. The IFRS transition for investment funds, meanwhile, has been deferred for now, to January 1, 2012, as discussed in our post of October 8.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
