Scope (AASB1_07-15_COMPmay22_07-21)

An entity shall apply this Standard in:

(a) its first Australian-Accounting-Standards financial statements; and

(b) each interim financial report, if any, that it presents in accordance with AASB 134 Interim Financial Reporting for part of the period covered by its first Australian-Accounting-Standards financial statements.

An entity’s first Australian-Accounting-Standards financial statements are the first annual financial statements in which the entity adopts Australian Accounting Standards, by an explicit and unreserved statement in those financial statements of compliance with Australian Accounting Standards. Financial statements in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards are an entity’s first Australian-Accounting-Standards financial statements if, for example, the entity:

(a) presented its most recent previous financial statements:

(i) in accordance with national requirements that are not consistent with Australian Accounting Standards or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) in all respects;

(ii) in conformity with Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs in all respects, except that the financial statements did not contain an explicit and unreserved statement that they complied with Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs;

(iii) containing an explicit statement of compliance with some, but not all, Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs;

(iv) in accordance with national requirements inconsistent with Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs, using some individual Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs to account for items for which national requirements did not exist; or

(v) in accordance with national requirements, with a reconciliation of some amounts to the amounts determined in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs;

(b) prepared financial statements in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs for internal use only, without making them available to the entity’s owners or any other external users;

(c) prepared a reporting package in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs for consolidation purposes without preparing a complete set of financial statements as defined in AASB 101 Presentation of Financial Statements (as revised in 2007); or

(d) did not present financial statements for previous periods.

[Deleted by the AASB]

In rare circumstances, a not-for-profit public sector entity may experience extreme difficulties in complying with the requirements of certain Australian Accounting Standards due to information deficiencies that have caused the entity to state non-compliance with previous GAAP. In these cases, the conditions specified in paragraph 3 for the application of this Standard are taken to be satisfied provided the entity:

(a) discloses in its first Australian-Accounting-Standards financial statements:

(i) an explanation of information deficiencies and its strategy for rectifying those deficiencies; and

(ii) the Australian Accounting Standards that have not been complied with; and

(b) makes an explicit and unreserved statement of compliance with other Australian Accounting Standards for which there are no information deficiencies.

This Standard applies when an entity first adopts Australian Accounting Standards. It does not apply when, for example, an entity:

(a) stops presenting financial statements in accordance with national requirements, having previously presented them as well as another set of financial statements that contained an explicit and unreserved statement of compliance with Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs;

(b) presented financial statements in the previous year in accordance with national requirements and those financial statements contained an explicit and unreserved statement of compliance with Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs; or

(c) presented financial statements in the previous year that contained an explicit and unreserved statement of compliance with Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs, even if the auditors qualified their audit report on those financial statements.

Notwithstanding the requirements in paragraphs 2 and 3, an entity that has applied Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs in a previous reporting period, but whose most recent previous annual financial statements did not contain an explicit and unreserved statement of compliance with Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs, must either apply this Standard or else apply Australian Accounting Standards retrospectively in accordance with AASB 108 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors as if the entity had never stopped applying Australian Accounting Standards or IFRSs.

When an entity does not elect to apply this Standard in accordance with paragraph 4A, the entity shall nevertheless apply the disclosure requirements in paragraphs 23A–23B of AASB 1, in addition to the disclosure requirements in AASB 108.

This Standard does not apply to changes in accounting policies made by an entity that already applies Australian Accounting Standards. Such changes are the subject of:

(a) requirements on changes in accounting policies in AASB 108 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors; and

(b) specific transitional requirements in other Australian Accounting Standards.