What is the disclosure definition under IFRS?
Disclosure definition – one of the best ways to explain the need for disclosures is provided in IAS 1.119 ‘management considers whether disclosure would assist users in understanding how transactions, other events and conditions are reflected in reported financial performance and financial position. Each entity considers the nature of its operations and the policies that the users of its financial statements would expect to be disclosed for that type of entity.‘
Let us point to some IFRS disclosure particularities
In IAS 1 Presentaion of Financial Statements the overall disclosure requirements are provided. Other IAS/IFRSs set out the recognition, measurement and disclosure requirements for specific transactions and other events (IAS 1.3).
An entity cannot rectify inappropriate accounting policies either by disclosure of the accounting policies used or by notes or explanatory material (IAS 1.18).
Some IAS/IFRSs specify information that is required to be included in the financial statements, which include the notes. An entity need not provide a specific disclosure required by a IFRS if the information resulting from that disclosure is not material. This is the case even if the IFRS contains a list of specific requirements or describes them as minimum requirements.
An entity shall also consider whether to provide additional disclosures when compliance with the specific requirements in IFRS is insufficient to enable users of financial statements to understand the impact of particular transactions, other events and conditions on the entity’s financial position and financial performance (IAS 1.31).
Minimum comparative information
In some cases, narrative information provided in the financial statements for the preceding period(s) continues to be relevant in the current period. For example, an entity discloses in the current period details of a legal dispute, the outcome of which was uncertain at the end of the preceding period and is yet to be resolved. Users may benefit from the disclosure of information that the uncertainty existed at the end of the preceding period and from the disclosure of information about the steps that have been taken during the period to resolve the uncertainty (IAS 1.38B).