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IFRS Foundation Publishes Proposed Update to the IFRS Taxonomy 2020: General Improvements and Common Practice Presentation of Information in Primary Financial Statements

Nov. 5, 2020

The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation has published a proposed update to the IFRS Taxonomy 2020 for public comment to reflect common reporting practice and general improvements relating to information commonly reported in financial statements. These proposed changes are the result of feedback on the IFRS Taxonomy from users and preparers of tagged financial statements, as well as the IFRS Foundation’s review of taxonomy extensions created by reporting entities for use in SEC filings. The public comment period ends on January 5, 2021.

This taxonomy update covers several topics such as earnings per share, employee benefits expenses and share-based payment expenses, and effects of changes in foreign exchange rates.

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.

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