IFRS Foundation Proposes Improvements to the IFRS Taxonomy 2020 Related to Presentation and Disclosure of Employee Benefits

The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation has released for public comment a proposed update to the IFRS Taxonomy 2020 to reflect common reporting practices related to the presentation and disclosure requirements of International Accounting Standard (IAS) 19 Employee Benefits. These proposed changes are the result of the IFRS Foundation’s review of extensions created by entities in their filings in conformity with IFRS and submitted to the SEC. The public comment period ends on January 26, 2021.

This taxonomy update covers a wide range of subtopics discussed in IAS 19 including: defined benefit plan asset fair values, defined benefit obligation maturity, reconciliation of net defined benefit liabilities (assets) and reimbursement rights, disaggregation of amounts reported, and changes related to other plans.

Proposed updates to the IFRS Taxonomy are released throughout the year as changes to IFRS Standards, common practice elements, or taxonomy architecture take place, or as annual improvements, including improvements to data models to support consistent tagging or improvements to better reflect presentation and disclosure requirements in IFRS Standards, are made. After the comment period for each proposed update, a taxonomy update is issued. The annual IFRS Taxonomy, published in the first quarter of each calendar year, is a compilation of taxonomy updates released during the year. While each proposed update has a comment period, the annual IFRS Taxonomy has no public comment period.

Comments on this proposed update to the IFRS Taxonomy should be submitted directly to the IFRS Foundation. The SEC staff encourages filers, investors, analysts, software service providers, and other interested parties to participate in this public review to continue to improve the process for creating and using XBRL-structured financial statements.

Only annual compilations of the IFRS Taxonomy that are specified on the Commission’s website may be used in SEC XBRL submissions. The availability for public comment of the proposed IFRS Taxonomy update does not indicate Commission approval of any potential regulatory changes related to the EDGAR Filer Manual. Please refer to the SEC’s EDGAR webpage at https://www.sec.gov/edgar/filer-information/current-edgar-filer-manual for updated information on when the Commission approves changes, if any, related to the EDGAR Filer Manual.