FRS 102 application – what’s changed and what happens next?
Companies applying FRS 102 received a welcome early Christmas present in December when the FRC published a number of amendments to the reporting standard following its triennial review. The changes are designed to simplify existing requirements and reduce both the cost and effort involved in preparing accounts.
While not mandatory until 2019, the amendments are now available for early adoption, allowing companies to take advantage of them in their December 2017 accounts. The modifications are part of a far-reaching project to identify and resolve various problems that have arisen in applying the existing standard. The number of major changes is, however, relatively small: most of the amendments are limited to tidying up drafting issues and are not expected to have a significant effect.
The relief from recognising tax on profits that will be paid up as distributions using gift-aid and the relief from the requirement to record directors loans at fair value are both available for early adoption without adopting the other requirements.
The FRC intends to publish revised versions of the standards, incorporating these changes, in early 2018. Given that the amendments are largely intended to ease existing requirements, affected entities may wish to adopt them early.
Entities which are not affected by the main amendments may still adopt early – or they may wish to place the amendments onto the back-burner, for consideration later in 2018.