While the Federal Government has been working to cut red tape for Australia’s business community, the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) is doing just the opposite by issuing new draft guidelines which would ramp up reporting complexity for many Australian businesses, says Grant Thornton Australia.
The Australian Government’s Corporate Reporting Reform Bill, issued last week, promised a new era for Australia’s corporate reporting requirements by lifting the regulatory burden on many companies. However, these improvements could now be eroded by the AASB’s proposals on differential financial reporting, says Grant Thornton.
According to Matt Adam-Smith, national head of audit & assurance services at Grant Thornton Australia, the AASB has ignored calls to introduce a simplified IFRS for SMEs, and has also introduced a new set of complicated financial statements for smaller non-reporting companies.
“We have been campaigning vigorously on the issue of corporate reporting, but our satisfaction with the Corporate Reporting Reform Bill has been replaced by disappointment at the proposals made by the AASB,” he said.
“The proposals still require SMEs to fulfil cumbersome and complicated IFRS measurement and recognition rules, which simply do not suit the scale of their business operations…an accounting system which is already too complicated for smaller companies is not right for Mum and Dad businesses and charities,” he added.
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