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The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) Foundation today published for public comment an exposure draft of the IFRS for SMEs Taxonomy. The Taxonomy is a complete translation of the International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium-sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs) into XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language).
XBRL is a licence-free electronic language used to communicate information between businesses. Its use enables companies and regulators to benefit from easier filing, and makes financial data easier for investors, analysts and others to access and compare.
The exposure draft of the IFRS for SMEs Taxonomy is accompanied by a comprehensive review package containing a sample XBRL filing and explanatory materials, as well as illustrative financial statements and a presentation and disclosure checklist.
The IFRS for SMEs was issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) on 9 July 2009 as a self-contained standard of about 230 pages tailored for the needs and capabilities of smaller businesses. Many of the principles in full IFRSs for recognising and measuring assets, liabilities, income and expenses have been simplified, topics not relevant to SMEs have been omitted, and the number of required disclosures has been significantly reduced. To further reduce the reporting burden for SMEs the IASB aims to limit revisions to the IFRS to once every three years.
The IFRS for SMEs responds to strong international demand from both developed and emerging economies for a rigorous and common set of accounting standards for smaller and medium-sized businesses that is much simpler than full IFRSs.
The exposure draft of the IFRS for SMEs Taxonomy is available online and is open for comment until 27 November 2009. The IASC Foundation aims to publish the final version of the IFRS for SMEs Taxonomy in December 2009. |